#i meant to do this request ages ago but then i accidentally posted it but then it just disappeared off the face of the earth

[little-pup-pip]

Cinnamoroll!!

for @milkshake99

#So here's the thing #i meant to do this request ages ago but then i accidentally posted it but then it just disappeared off the face of the earth #so I'm redoing it #it took a while for me to finish it #so i hope you like it! #and sorry that Tumblr ate the first one!! #sfw interaction only #moodboard #sfw agere #agere #age regression #sfw littlespace #agere moodboard #age dreaming #cinnamoroll #cinnamoroll moodboard

[tenpintsofsundrop]

Push and Pull

Emily Prentiss x Fem!Reader (Smut Blurb)

Concept: While playing games with Viper, Emily (accidentally) plays on your attraction to her - something you had been trying to hide since you started with the BAU. The results end up being more than interesting.

Word Count: 2,800

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Full list of warnings and author's notes below the cut.

Warnings: smut; this is set during Season 4, Episode 9 (52 Pickup) and there is a lot of references to the episode in this, but I think you could read this without having seen the episode; mentions of typically sexist practices - in the form of 'pickup artistry': the reader character replaces Jordan Todd on the team; there is an age gap between Emily and the reader - Emily is older and the reader character is younger; the reader character uses she/her pronouns and has a vagina; mention of the reader wearing a dress and makeup; the reader has sexual fantasies about Emily - which include: pussy eating, fingering, rough sex, semi public sex, being called 'naughty girl'; most of the sex acts are in fantasies (this fic is mostly tension and build up and sexually adjacent situations rather than actual sex); masturbation (the reader masturbates); mentions of masturbation being unsatisfying or not feeling 'as good' as having sex with the desired partner; caught masturbating - Emily walks in on the reader; Emily refers to herself as 'Mama' (once); rough kissing, Emily gropes the reader through clothing, very light choking (from Emily toward the reader) (Emily puts her hand on the reader's neck and applies pressure for a few seconds to get her attention), Emily calls the reader 'needy little thing' (in this case the word 'little' is meant to be condescending and not a description of size); undertones of degradation kink; I believe that is everything.

A/N: The original request mentioned fake dating (and I would love to do that trope with Emily), but I couldn't stop thinking about how stunning and gorgeous Emily looks in this episode, and I thought it would be interesting to use it. Also the idea of a man basing his pickup techniques on women needing male validation when - hey, what kind of women wouldn't want or need male validation? A woman who is obsessed with the other gorgeous woman at the table. It was such a fun scenario to write about. I definitely wanna write more Emily fics in the future.

...

At first, you really weren’t looking forward to it. 

Though it seemed fun in concept - having an excuse to dress up and go out to a club while on the job - Emily assured you that it was going to be miserable. 

The way Emily talked about the man - Viper. She almost made him sound worse than some of the confirmed killers you had dealt with during your short time at the BAU. She said that he was the scum of the earth, a waste of oxygen, that made her feel dirty just by giving her a weird look. She joked that she was ‘dragging you along’ because she didn’t want to suffer alone (that, and she needed backup, in case the guy truly was dangerous). 

From the way she talked about it, you thought the night was going to be miserable. 

You certainly didn’t expect it to be one of the best nights of your life. 

Viper frequented bars and nightclubs. So of course, nightclub appropriate attire was required. You rushed to a store and grabbed the first tight dress you could find (a red one with spaghetti straps that would pair well with a pair of modest black heels you already had in your bag for the job). You didn’t expect to come back and see Emily getting changed into a clingy black dress that fit her like sin, her makeup subtle but smokey. 

You had been actively suppressing your attraction to her, a gorgeous older woman, since you had joined the BAU a month ago. You told yourself that you could keep your lustful feelings under control because you would only be there temporarily, to replace their usual media liaison - who was on maternity leave. But seeing her dressed up like this, it certainly didn’t help with that suppression. 

Things only got worse when you got to the club and Viper descended upon the two of you. (You quietly whispered to Emily that his name should have been Vulture and the soft laughter she let out had your insides fluttering.) 

Turns out, Emily had been paying extra attention to the ‘push and pull’ technique that Reid had talked about. And even though you knew that it was just in the name of messing with the cocky man - you fell hook, line, and sinker for Emily’s combatants of this technique. 

See, rather than letting him push and pull the two of you - compliment one of you and leave the other one reeling for validation, Emily complimented you herself. She never let Viper leave room for you to need that validation. Not that you would ever need it from someone like him. But she certainly threw him off with this tactic. 

She supported you, focused far more of her attention on you than she did on him. The two of you never fell to the traditional ‘women in constant competition’ market that his techniques were built on. If she put far more of her focus on you and actively ignored him (or even not-so-subtly insulted him), then what could he do? 

Women not vying for his attention? It was a curveball for the ages. 

Clearly, he had no backup plan. He was struggling to keep up. 

If he called your dress cheap, Emily said how well the fabric complimented your amazing body. If he said your mascara was clumpy and poorly done, Emily said your eyes were naturally beautiful and shined bright without makeup anyway. 

The more annoyed it seemed to make him, the more she fawned over you. 

And it left you staring at her all night. Captivated by her beauty, her silky voice. You barely even knew that he was there as she laughed at him, engaged in his silly games, taunted him. 

By the time you left the club, you were almost high on the affection Emily had given you. 

The rest seemed to go by in a blur. The real killer was caught at a different club, and the team retired back to their hotel to get some rest before returning home. As you and Emily walked back to your shared room, you were still laughing and joking about the pathetic man who somehow made his living off of scamming men more pathetic than him. 

“And did - did you see the look on his face when I said ‘you probably go home alone, don’t you?’ - Like he - he couldn’t believe that I wasn’t falling for his BS,” Emily said, stuttering through her words as hardy laughter disrupted her speech. 

“It’s like he’s never met a confident woman in his life.” You replied, a delicate chuckle in your voice. 

It was a subtle compliment toward Emily, admiring her confidence in how well she had dealt with the scummy, overly cocky man. 

“No, not quite.” Emily sighed, using the keycard to open the hotel room door. 

Your insides fluttered even more when she held the door open for you. You couldn’t help but enjoy the domestic feeling behind it as you brushed past her body in order to get inside. 

Of course, she wasn’t even paying attention to the dreamy, starstruck look on your face as she continued speaking. 

“He’s never approached a confident woman before.” She quickly corrected, letting the door fall shut and click locked behind her. “He’s never approached a woman he thought he couldn’t con.” 

“And for some reason he dared you to ‘meet him on his turf’?” You questioned, repeating the words she had told you, when ranting about the previous interaction she had with the awful man. “You, of all people?” 

You had to wonder what about Emily Prentiss would come off as even slightly insecure or - what about her said that she would fall for his stupid tricks. In your opinion, it was like trying to outrun a cheetah using a tricycle. 

“Yeah, I guess he was counting on me being drunk and blinded by all his guyliner.” Emily joked, tossing her bag down onto one of the twin beds. 

You collapsed down onto the other bed with intense laughter. The joke itself was funny, but her delivery, her confidence, and her smile caused a spark through you that forced you to laugh off the tension before you jumped her bones. You had to be professional. You had to keep reminding yourself of that. 

“I call the bathroom first.” She announced. “I really need a shower after being drowned in Drakkar Noir all night.” 

You had to ignore the dryness in your throat and the heat between your thighs at the thought of her in the shower. Previously, it was something your mind could have easily glossed over, but after she spent the night fawning over you and capturing your attention completely, it was like you were a horny teenager again. Now all you could think about was her completely naked, droplets of hot water rolling across her skin, surrounded by steam. 

You had to pull yourself together. You had to be professional, for fuck’s sake. 

“But of course.” You told her, giving a smile and a nod. You motioned toward the bathroom, as if presenting it to her in a gentlemanly fashion. “I’ll probably just shower in the morning.” 

Emily nodded in acknowledgement of this, and there was no further conversation. 

This left your mind reeling, your body entirely tense and hyper aware of her every movement as she got ready. You had to busy yourself with grabbing your pajamas out of your own bag - an oversized X-Files tee shirt and a pair of comfortable cotton shorts - while she grabbed her toiletries bag and went into the bathroom. 

The water turned on and you tried your hardest not to think about her undressing and stepping under the stream as you changed into your pjs. You tried your hardest not to think about her tight, fit body relaxing under the steam. You tried your hardest not to think about soft bubbles rolling across her soft, pale skin. 

Clearly, you were failing. Failing not to think about her. Failing miserably when it came to suppressing your attraction for her. 

By the time you climbed into bed, there was a hard, hot pain between your thighs. 

You wanted so badly to simply roll over and go to sleep. You wanted to ignore it. But a very large part of you worried that if you didn’t ‘take care’ of that nagging arousal, then you wouldn’t be able to sleep. And if you didn’t sleep and you rolled into the next day with this attraction to Emily still at the forefront of your mind - then you wouldn’t be able to act normal around her for the travel day home tomorrow. You might say or do something stupid. 

You had to do something. 

The longer you laid there in bed, unconsciously squeezing your thighs together, feeling your pussy throbbing between them - thinking about Emily’s head being trapped between your legs - the more it bothered you. 

You had some time while she was in the shower, right? You could be quick. Of course you could. And if you heard the water turn off, you would simply stop. 

Before any true logic could catch up between your ears, a hand was sneaking below the waistband of your shorts. That hand easily went inside your underwear and found a natural place on your throbbing clit. You dipped down into your wetness (leaking out of you abundantly from how much you had been thinking about Emily) and slicked up the hot button before you began rubbing it in hard circles. You were determined to cum quickly and be done with it. 

You closed your eyes and tiled your head back against the pillow, your mind drifting back to her once again. You couldn’t stop thinking about how perfect she looked in that ruby lipstick. All night, you had felt jealous of the glass when she brought her drink up to her lips. 

You imagined her approaching you at a bar. 

You would be out by yourself, and she would see you from across the room. So entirely confident, she would see you and in a moment, know that she could have you. 

She would come up behind you, whisper sweetly in your ear, telling you how perfect you looked. She would smirk at your initial shyness when you giggled at the compliment. She would tell you that she couldn’t wait to get you home - that she wanted you and she wanted you now. 

So she would pull you into a bathroom, pinning you against a counter. And then she would shove her hand under your dress, only to find that you weren’t wearing any panties, just for her. She would scold you, call you a naughty girl. Her voice so sweet and condescending, only making you wetter. And then she would shove her fingers into your slick cunt and shove her other hand over your mouth, trying in vain to keep your whorish moans from being heard as you begged for her. 

“Emily, please,” You couldn’t stop the faint, needy moan that escaped you as you got lost in the fantasy. 

Of course, so lost in it, that you didn’t hear the shower turning off. 

Your pussy ached, leaking freely into your underwear, and your clit throbbed, emanating a needy pain out through your pelvis. You worked your fingers in more frantic circles, doubling down. Your hips canted up off the bed, knocking the covers off you slightly as dull pleasure radiated out across your hips. 

(Dull compared to what Emily would have given you, you were sure.) 

Even if it was unsatisfactory, you were close. 

“Emily-!” You cried out desperately, right on the edge of orgasm. 

“Hey, do you have some makeup remover I can borrow? I forgot-” 

Shock cascaded through your system and you instantly stilled your movements. This caused your orgasm to become a low hum in your pelvis once again as your eyes shot open in disbelief. 

Your gaze locked onto Emily where she stood in the bathroom doorway. Your insides were still with shock - embarrassment or any other emotion hadn’t even caught up yet. 

Steam ploomed around her and she was forced to hold up the hotel towel with one hand as it couldn’t fully wrap around her body, leaving a sliver of her skin exposed from her armpit to her knee - the curve of her breast, her waist, and her hip on full display. With her hair soaked and her bangs slicked back from her face, and true to what she had said, her makeup still on but slightly smudged from the shower - she looked utterly delicious. 

She was like a pornographic dream, live in front of you. 

You let out a quiet whimper at the sight. 

It was only then that your brain began to unfreeze from the shock, and you realized how truly incriminating you looked. The covers pooled around your thighs, your hand quite visibly inside your shorts, your face contorted with pleasure as your eyes scanned over her half naked body. You rushed to rip your hand out of your underwear - and you realized the sight wasn’t much better as your fingers glistened in the light. 

Emily’s eyes moved from your glistening fingers to your stiff, nervous body, your thighs still parted (as it would be too uncomfortable to clamp them down on your wet underwear and aching cunt). She smirked at you. She looked at you with the same devious, cocky expression that Viper had started out the night with - before she had taken him down notch by notch. 

The look alone caused any apology to be stuck in your throat. You waited for her to speak before you made any moves. 

“What were you thinking about?” She asked, her voice breathy, soft, yet entirely commanding. 

In that moment, caught in the smoldering gate of her eyes, you could find nothing but honesty pounding inside of your chest. 

“You.” You whined quietly. 

Emily chuckled gently. 

Your stomach twisted with embarrassment for the split second that you thought she might be laughing at you. But then you realized that it was, in fact, a sound of satisfaction. 

That realization hit you when she dropped the towel completely. She stood in front of you proudly, showing off all of her naked, wet glory. Her dark nipples pebbling in the air, the damp sheen of water making her skin glow like a dewy goddess. Quite obviously, she wanted you to look.

Your eyes traced a few thick droplets of water as they escaped her hair and ran down her body. You became absolutely mesmerized by the way gravity pulled the water over her collarbones, the teardrop curve of her breasts, the plushness of her stomach, across her pelvis, down her thighs. You imagined yourself tracing over those exact lines with your tongue. 

“Come to me.” 

Her silken voice snapped you out of your trance. Your eyes shot back up to her face once again, and in the sluggish moment that it took the words to get to your brain, she added something onto the command that absolutely knocked the wind out of you. 

“Come on. Come to Mama.” 

Her calling herself that name, so self assured, so certain - the phrase almost had you down on all fours, crawling to her like a dog. 

But instead, you scrambled to get upright and practically ran across the room to her on shaking legs. Entirely eager, you stood in front of her and leaned in to press your mouth against hers. Naturally, you expected that the interaction would start with a kiss. 

But she quickly reached up and stopped you with a hand on the side of your neck. You let out a harsh whimper of disappointment - one that quickly turned into a moan when she pressed her thumb into your windpipe with just enough pressure to make your brain go fuzzy. 

She was showing you who was in charge. 

“Not so fast,” She told you, her breath cascading against your lips now. 

Although she was completely naked and you were clothed, it was very apparent that she was the one in complete control. 

“Tell me how badly you want it.” She ordered, her voice low and almost gentle - a soft domineering that caused the hairs on your arms to stand up straight. 

“I want it so badly,” You easily replied, your voice intensely needy. “I need it. I need you, Em.” 

Emily reached up with her other hand and - with no warning - harshly gripped your pussy through your underwear and shorts. This caused sharp shocks of arousal to flow through you, making you moan out weakly. It was a dizzying euphoria that had you bucking into her hand. You almost came from that single touch alone. 

“Needy little thing.” She purred. “I am gonna have so much fun with you.” 

This was her last verbal sentiment before she pulled you forward by that hand on your neck and silenced any further moans with a bruising kiss.

#sundrop writes #emily prentiss #emily prentiss x reader #emily prenitss x fem!reader #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds x reader

[onepiece-oc-archives]

A Condensed History of the Roger Pirates

I'm only about... three months late? Either way, I promised I would do it, didn't I? So, here you go @starcrossedjedis

Obviously, this history of the travels of the Pirate King and his crew is going to involve some spoilers, so be prepared.

First of all, some quick info on the crew's most important members:

Gol D. Roger, also known as Gold Roger, the Pirate King: Roger was the crew's captain and namesake, as well as a former owner of Luffy's straw hat as he was the one to pass it down to Shanks. He was known to be fearless, prideful and quick to anger, but also humble and kind to civilians and children. His public execution in Loguetown 22 years ago was supposed to end piracy but brought on the Great Age of Pirates instead.

Silvers Rayleigh, the Dark King: Rayleigh was the crew's first mate and has now retired to Sabaody Archipelago, where he lives with his wife Shakky. He is a light-hearted and casual man, but he does take his position as the crew's disciplinarian seriously, especially towards the younger members. Generally, he is a strategist and can remain calm and collected even in the most dire of situations.

Crocus, the current lighthouse keeper of the Twin Cape Lighthouse, which guides ships into the Grand Line.

Kozuki Oden, the heir to the shogun of Wano Country, and Kozuki Toki, his wife: Oden, originally a member of the Whitebeard Pirates, was a confident and carefree man. One could even describe him as violent and selfish. But truly, his badly planned attempts at helping people always meant well, despite often having the opposite effect. He became more responsible and mature after sailing with the Roger Pirates but could still be considered naive. Still, he returned to Wano Country to take his father's place as shogun but was then executed by usurpers in an event called the Legendary Hour. His wife, Toki, was a very kind woman and also very humble and caring. She met Oden during his time on Whitebeard's crew and the two of them had two children. Later during their journey, when they were already part of the Roger Pirates, Toki became ill and had to stay behind in Wano. Toki was murdered shortly after Oden's execution.

Red-Haired Shanks: Yes, this is the Shanks, the one we all know and love. He was found in a treasure chest by Roger and was with the crew as an apprentice from at least when he was nine years old until the crew disbanded a year before Roger's execution. He got the straw hat from Roger at the very latest when he was nine years old.

Buggy the Clown: Buggy was an apprentice of the Roger Pirates at the same time that Shanks was and they became more or less friendly rivals during this time. Shanks is directly or indirectly responsible for Buggy accidentally eating his devil fruit at least 25 years ago.

Inuarashi and Nekomamushi: Dogstorm Inuarashi and Cat Viper Nekomamushi are the current rulers of the mink tribe. They originally became shipwrecked at Wano Country and then followed Oden first to the Whitebeard Pirates, then to the Roger Pirates.

Now, time for the actual topic of this post:

The History of the Roger Pirates

The Roger Pirates were formed 50 years ago when Roger met Rayleigh. Though Rayleigh initially laughed at Roger's request to join him, he did end up sailing with him either way. They gathered many friends and crewmates on their voyage and Roger developed a personal rivalry with Monkey D. Garp.

37 years ago, the Roger Pirates reached Lodestar Island, the last island on the Grand Line that can be reached by regular methods via a Log Pose. They are the first crew to make it there in 800 years and become aware of the existence of a final island in the Grand Line that cannot be reached without the information on the Road Poneglyphs. Roger had previously stolen the information on the Road Poneglyph owned by Big Mom, meaning they already owned one Road Poneglyph out of four.

36 years ago, the Roger Pirates were involved in an event called the God Valley Incident, taking place on the island of God Valley in the West Blue. The existence of a manhunt against the native population there was leaked to the outside world, which prompted the legendary and legendarily vicious Rocks Pirates to travel to the island. The Roger Pirates and Monkey D. Garp went in pursuit, and a large, chaotic battle ensued with long-reaching consequences for the entire world. Nonetheless, knowledge of these events is restricted and the island was mysteriously erased from existence and from the maps of the world. The Rocks Pirates were defeated at the hands of an alliance between the Roger Pirates and Monkey D. Garp, leading the Rocks Pirates' former members to form powerful crews of their own that still have a big impact on the world, though not many people acknowledge their connection through the Rocks Pirates nowadways. The Roger Pirates found Shanks during or after this very incident.

26 years ago, Roger discovered that he had a fatal and incurable disease. He then recruited the doctor Crocus from Reverse Mountain who was supposed to keep him alive as long as possible as he led his crew on a final voyage across the Grand Line.

At about this time, the Roger Pirates raided another ship at sea and found a treasure map and a devil fruit, the Bara Bara no Mi or Chop Chop Fruit. Buggy kept the treasure map for himself as it led to a treasure at the bottom of the sea. When he found out about the devil fruit, he was initially put off by it as eating it would make him unable to swim and thus unable to get the treasure. However, when Shanks told him that it was worth 100,000,000 Berry if sold, he became very interested in it and planned to steal it, so he made a fake devil fruit and ate it in front of the crew. He then planned to sneak off the ship with the real fruit and the map, get rich, and form his own crew, but Shanks startled him and he hid it in his mouth. Shanks then startled him a second time and Buggy accidentally swallowed the devil fruit. As he shouted at Shanks over this, the treasure map fell into the water. Without thinking, Buggy jumped after it but, due to the effects of the devil fruit, was unable to swim. He would have drowned, had Shanks not saved him.

25 years ago, the Roger Pirates fought the Golden Lion Pirates in the Battle of Edd War. The captain of the Golden Lion Pirates was Shiki the Golden Lion, a former Rocks member. He had asked Roger to join him so they could rule the world together, but Roger had turned him down as he had no interest in world domination. What ensued next was a fierce sea battle fought on the sea called Edd War, a part of the New World, the second half of the Grand Line. Initially, it looked as if the Roger Pirates were bound to lose because they were vastly outnumbered by Shiki's armada, but then, a storm hit Edd War and half of Shiki's armada sank. As such, the battle was broken off and declared a draw. Shiki got a piece of a steering wheel permanently lodged into his brain during the chaos caused by the storm.

24 years ago, the Roger Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates met on an island in Paradise, the first half of the Grand Line, and Whitebeard reluctantly agreed to allow Oden (who, as a member of the Kozuki Family, could read Poneglyphs) to join the Roger Pirates after both Roger and Oden himself had asked him for permission. Toki came aboard with her husband, along with their two children, and Inuarashi and Nekomamushi snuck on as stowaways. The crew celebrated Oden's induction into their ranks with a party.

Within the same year, the Roger Pirates ventured to Skypeia and Fishman Island, where they found their second Road Poneglyph. Oden, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi then revealed that the final two Road Poneglyphs were in their home countries, Wano and Zou respectively, and the Roger Pirates successfully found them there. Kozuki Toki fell ill and was left behind on the island of Wano, along with her and Oden's two children. Oden wanted to give up his dream and stay behind with her, but she threatened him with a divorce if he gave up because of her. As such, Oden continued with the Roger Pirates as they travelled to the final island.

23 years ago, the Roger Pirates charted the location of the final island using the four Road Poneglyphs. Buggy fell ill and, as such, he and Shanks stayed behind on another island. The rest of the Roger Pirates made it to the final island and decided to name it Laugh Tale. After returning from Laugh Tale, Roger disbanded the crew and sailed off on his own. The now former crew brought Oden to Wano before everyone started going their own ways. Buggy and Shanks presumably stayed together until Roger's execution.

Notes:

22 years ago, Roger turned himself in to the Marines and was publicly executed in Loguetown, his birth town on the Polestar Islands in the East Blue, giving it the epithet The Town of the Beginning and End. Shanks and Buggy were both in attendance and most likely split up after this event, forming their own crews, the Red Hair Pirates and the Buggy Pirates respectively. Gol D. Roger's final words set off the Great Age of Pirates with thousands of pirates taking to the seas to find the Pirate King's legendary treasure, the One Piece.

So, that's it! I hope this helped, even if it’s a little late. Have a nice day!

"Dogstorm" and "Cat Viper" are not the actual epithets of Inuarashi and Nekomamushi but rather the translations of their names that they are referred to as in some translations. Still, I decided to treat them as epithets because they seemed the most expressive.

Some translations refer to the final island as "Raftel" instead of "Laugh Tale". This is wrong and stems from bad transliteration. BUT you can use it for fic purposes as the World Government has a habit of changing the names of people or things to hide the truth about them. For example, referring to Gol D. Roger as Gold Roger. Because of the nature of the things to be found on Laugh Tale, it's very possible that the World Government would want to change to island's name. Thank you to the people on the Discord server for sharing their brilliant thoughts on this with me :)

#one piece #topic: history #spoiler: post opla s1 #spoiler: fishman island #spoiler: whole cake island #spoiler: wano #spoiler: strong world #spoiler: sabaody #spoiler: zou

[polutrope]

For the modern AU holiday prompts @i-did-not-mean-to requested Beren + accidental drunkenness, and MoonLord requested Thingol, Beleg, Túrin, and Mablung + Decorating a tree. ~2.2k words, rated G. [The Edain in this AU are officially whatever age and relation I want them to be.] Posting these to AO3, here. Prompt list (prompts closed). Beleria Cast of Characters

The flamboyant man at the booth in the back cried out, “Another round for the bar!” and Beren and Lúthien joined the patrons in a celebratory whoop.

Lúthien threw her head back and laughed as a server set two more two more beers on the table.

“I can’t believe this guy,” she said to Beren. “Who is he?”

“His name is Saeros,” the server answered. “A regular. I think he owns a record label or something. Celebrating a chart topper.” She smiled and cleared their empty glasses. “Enjoy.”

“No way,” Lúthien said, and left her mouth hanging open.

“What?” said Beren. Lúthien continued to gape. “What, what? You know him?”

“Yeah! Saeros Green. He offered my brother a record deal years ago.”

“And Daeron turned it down?” Beren asked.

Lúthien dipped her chin affirmatively with an air of pride. “He did. The guy is a smarmy bastard. Milks his artists for everything they’ve got. I mean, look at him!” Lúthien said, gesticulating with both arms in his direction. “Look at all that bling! And the red velvet suit, on a Thursday afternoon, really? Looks like he got in a fight with the Yule display at Mírdain Mall!”

“Ssshh sssh,” Beren said, giggling. “He’ll hear you! Anyway, I like him. Free booze!” He raised his glass in a toast and took a large gulp.

Lúthien was laughing when he lowered it. “You have foam in your beard!”

Beren grinned, making no effort to remedy the situation. “How do I look? More wizened?”

“Like an idiot!” Lúthien blurted, and laughed again.

She was so beautiful. Beren fell into a besotted stupor, staring at her face lit with mirth, listening to her musical laughter… he could die happy right here, right now, getting day-drunk with the most beautiful woman in the world—

“Beren,” she said. “Beren! Your phone is ringing!”

“What, birdie?” he said, surfacing.

“Your phone!” she said, and shoved it into his hand. “Someone’s calling you.”

He looked at he call display: Morwen Ethel-Wang. “Shit,” he said. “Shitshitshit.”

The call dropped before he could answer. Lúthien stared, awaiting an explanation.

Beren exhaled a long breath before giving one. “You remember a few months ago when we talked about my buddy Húrin’s son staying with us for a few days while his wife is at a conference in town?”

“Oh yeah!” Lúthien said. “When’s that happening?”

“Um,” said Beren. “Today. They’re at our place now.”

“Shit,” said Lúthien.

*

On the monitor, the minutes of the last City Council meeting swam in and out of Elu’s vision. He sighed. The permanent bikeway through Hithlum park had been voted down. Again.

His eyes drifted to the thick folder of letters his intern Beleg had dropped on his desk earlier, from the Hithlum Homeowner’s Association — all variations on the same template, laying out the supposed dangers of a “bike superhighway” through a “family-oriented” neighbourhood. Since when were bicycles dangerous? He pushed the folder aside. Well, they got what they wanted.

It was those damn developers from Valin! Hithlum used to be the alternative neighbourhood back in the 80s, where the artists and students hung out, now it was overrun with wealthy— Elu took a deep breath. He valued the diversity of Beleria. He did. But by god if it didn’t make it impossible to get anything done in this city! You would think, as Mayor, that your word actually meant something—

His phone pinged.

Lúthien💮💗

Hey papa! I know you’re working but I have a biiiig favour to ask.

3:14pm

Elu Singh-Goel

What is it, sweetie?

3:15pm

Lúthien💮💗

Sooo Beren has this friend and his kid was supposed to stay with us this weekend and we kinda forgoy

forgot*

Anyway him and his mom are at our place now and we’re… not lol

3:16pm

Elu Singh-Goel

Oh? Where are you?

3:18pm

Lu?

3:21pm

Lúthien💮💗

Sorry!!

We went to Gabilgathol for lunch and accidentally got drunk

3:23pm

Elu drew back from his phone. That was not like his daughter. It was times like these he found it most difficult to accept her choice of partner. Beren was an admirable man, with respectable ambitions, but he was so young. Accidentally drunk…

Lúthien💮💗

Some guy was buying rounds for the house lol

3:24pm

Elu Singh-Goel

I see. And how do I come into this?

3:25pm

Lúthien💮💗

Can she bring Túrin to the office?

3:25pm

Túrin is the kid

Just for a couple hours! Nellas says she can take him tonight if we’re not sobered up

hahaha

3:26pm

Beren says he’s quiet. Just give him some crayons and paper.

3:28pm

Elu’s thumbs tapped out ‘OK’ before his mind had a chance to catch up. He stopped them, hovering over the send button. What had happened to him? There was a time he would have locked Lúthien up in her room for the weekend for getting drunk at 3pm on a Thursday! — but he couldn’t very well lock up an adult woman. Certainly not one he was going to lose.

Well, not lose. Not entirely — that had almost happened, when he’d tried to talk her out of marrying Beren, but he’d soon repented of that mistake when she disappeared for two weeks without a word to anyone. A cold current shivered down Elu’s spine. That had been a terrible winter.

But now, every day was another closer to her and Beren moving to Dead Man’s Isle. It was ridiculous: she had not needed him nearly half her life now, and yet Elu’s heart dropped when he thought of her so far away. Not around the corner, not where he could drop by on an evening stroll to say hello with a container of leftovers or a tin of Melian’s homemade lembas biscuits.

Because of all this, he had become a complete sucker and lost all ability to say no to her. And damn it if she didn’t know it, he thought with a rueful smile.

Elu Singh-Goel

OK.

3:26pm

Lúthien💮💗

Omg thanks so much papa!!

Beren will tell Morwen to bring him by

3:26pm

Elu Singh-Goel

Don’t to worry about it. I think I can send my intern to pick them up. Tell them to wait at The Dimbar.

3:27pm

Elu set the phone down, then picked up the receiver on his desk phone and dialed Beleg’s extension.

“Hey big guy, what’s up?”

Elu smiled. He really ought to impress a more professional attitude on his interns (it’s what they were there to learn after all), but there was something… rejuvenating about this one’s breezy familiarity with him — and besides, it was good for the ego to have some carefree college student call you “big guy” once in a while when you had a pile of letters on our desk addressing you as “Your Worship”.

“Beleg,” said Thingol. “Would you be able to run a little personal errand for me?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I need you to go pick up a kid and bring him to the office.”

*

Half-an-hour later Beleg rounded the corner at the end of the hall, running with a lanky, dark-haired boy clinging to his back.

“Here he is!” Beleg announced, and let the boy down. “Túrin, the Master of Fate! Isn’t that right?” He ruffled the boy’s hair. “We outsmarted fate six times on the way over, didn’t we little guy?”

“Red lights aren’t fate,” Túrin said, in the tone of a child who thinks he knows better. “They are for controlling traffic flow.”

“Beleg.” Elu did his best to conceal his amusement with a frown. “I hope you were not racing lights in a municipal vehicle again.”

“No sir,” said Beleg. “No racing. All very strategic.”

“Mm, I don’t think I want to know.” Elu rose from his hair and came around the front of the desk. “It’s nice to meet you, Túrin. Welcome to the office of the Mayor. I’m Elu.”

Túrin did not look impressed, and made no move to take Elu’s hand when offered. “Hi,” he said. “I’m Túrin.” Then he turned back to Beleg. “Can we go on your computer now like your promised?”

Elu lifted a brow, for Beleg’s benefit, as he addressed Túrin. “He promised you, did he? Funny, because Beleg does what I tell him to do, and I do not remember telling him to do that.”

Beleg laughed, not sounding nearly as nervous as he should have.

“Oh.” Túrin paused, visibly processing this new information. “Well can you tell him to play games with me?”

Elu had to laugh at the boy’s quick tactical adjustment. “I’m afraid Beleg doesn’t get to play games at work. But, while he was off picking you up, I thought of something else we could do.”

“What?” said Túrin and Beleg at once.

“Well,” Elu perched on the desk so he needn’t tower above them, “in the storage room there should be one of those fake trees and a box of decorations. We used to set it up in my office every year. I’d forgotten all about it, but since we’ve got you here, Túrin, I thought it would be a nice thing to do. What do you think?”

Túrin seemed to be deep in thought.

“Hey!” Beleg nudged him. “Sounds fun to me!”

“I don’t know,” Túrin said. “I barely know you. Tree decorating is for families.”

“Oh,” said Elu. “I suppose it’s something families often do together, yes. But they can be set up by coworkers, too, or even strangers, like us. I bet we won’t be strangers when we’re done.”

“We didn’t get a tree at my house this year,” Túrin disclosed. “My dad is away for Yule so my mom said we don’t need one.”

“I see,” Elu said, beginning to lose hope in this venture.

“All the more reason to set one up here!” Beleg offered.

“Yeah.” Túrin shrugged. “I guess.”

“Excellent!” said Elu. “Beleg, why don’t you take Túrin down the storage and have a look for it?”

*

They were gone a long time, and Elu was just beginning to wonder if he should go looking for them when they appeared toting two large boxes — and another of the interns.

“Hope you don’t mind if Mablung joins us!” Beleg said cheerily, setting the tree box upright in the corner of the room. Mablung placed the box of ornaments on Elu’s desk. “He said he was bored, I said he could help us.”

“Of course, of course. The more the merrier!” Elu said absently, distracted by fiddling with computer speakers in an effort to get the music to play. He groaned and threw up his hands. “Can one of you young people figure out why these blasted speakers have turned themselves off again?”

To his surprise, it was Túrin who answered the summons, running around behind the desk to investigate.

“It’s muted,” he said almost at once, and tapped a key on the keyboard. The bouncy beat of I’m the Happiest Christmas Tree spilled from the speakers.

The other three laughed, but Túrin crinkled his nose and hit skip on the song.

Soon, Beleg and Mablung had the tree set up and were arguing about the best placement for the string of lights. Once that was decided, they turned to debating how best to balance the bauble distribution.

Túrin seemed more interested in rooting through the box for the most unique ornaments. Elu watched him wistfully. He had not realised how much he missed being around children and their infectious wonderment at the world.

“I like this one,” Túrin said, pulling out a golden dragon. “My dad has one like it.”

“Oh, yes, very nice!” Elu said. “Why don’t you keep it?”

“Really?” said Túrin, his face brightening. He did not wait for confirmation before he shoved it in his pocket.

“Hey, what’s this now?” Beleg ambled over. “Mayor Man is giving away his ornament collection? Mablung, let’s see what’s in here!”

Beleg peered into the box, shoving aside some silver baubles and pulling out a long black icicle.

“Oh, sick,” he said, letting it dangle from a finger. “This is some goth sh— stuff.”

“Interesting,” said Elu, watching the strange ornament twirl. “I am not sure where that one came from.”

“Ohh, mystery ornament!” Beleg enthused. “Can I have it?”

“Really, you want that?” Mablung put in. “That’s weird, man. It looks like a weapon.”

“No way, it’s cool!” said Beleg.

“Well, if you want it,” said Elu, “I certainly don’t.”

“No, I want it!” Túrin shouted, and closed his fist around the icicle.

“Hey, kid, whoa, easy,” said Beleg. “You could just ask nice—!”

Beleg screamed. The ornament flew towards the ceiling, then arced back down and shattered on the floor. Túrin careened and toppled backwards, just missing Mablung lunging to break his fall.

Beleg gawked at his finger, which was bent backwards as a very unnatural angle.

“You dislocated my finger!” Beleg cried.

“Damn,” said Elu, and he was thinking neither of his injured employee nor of the crying child on the floor, but of the weeks of workplace accident reporting paperwork he’d just created for himself.

#beren #luthien #thingol #beleg #turin turambar #mablung #saeros #modern au #beleria au #holiday prompts #my fic #this one got a little out of control :D

[nightfallrevel]

Sitting in between Hitoshis legs and playing video games together as a married couple (age like 22) and your playing animal crossing and you give him a shirt in game that says "Number 1 Daddy" and hes all confused thinking it’s supposed to be kinky but actually reader is preggo

A/N:

I am finally posting this. I originally had this nearly done back when it was first requested, but then it all got deleted when my laptop decided it was time to update itself and shut down. I was so mad that I couldn't even come back to this for the longest time.

I hope you don't mind that I strayed from using second person and instead wrote it as an unnamed and as generic as I could make her OC. I really have come to despise second person POV and avoid writing it where I can.

Please enjoy!

CW: none, all fluff

Words: 1,141

They’d been married for just over a year and Shinsou Hitoshi couldn’t remember being happier. He’d met his wife a few years ago in a rather normal way and they had slowly become friends over time. The fact that he was a hero had never affected her opinion of him or swayed her feelings one way or another. She was understanding of his fluctuating hours and supported him on the hard days. In return, he gave her what she needed to chase her own dreams and career. They were a perfect match.

Of course, they fought, as all couples do, but they were always able to work things out. Communication and compromise were the keys to making their day to day lives work in the hardest of times, not that they had many of those. To anyone else, they probably looked like a pretty boring couple. Shinsou didn’t think so and he also liked to imagine that they were able to work as well as they did because they made sure to set aside time to spend together, not to mention a healthy sex schedule.

One of their favorite things to do together when they could was to play games. Anything from co-op to games that brought out their more competitive sides. Nothing made him happier to hear her laughter as she tried her hardest to beat him with every level they played - or accidentally hit a wrong button. Recently, though, his little wife had an obsession with a new game. A little slower paced than they usually went for, but it was cute and his wife was obsessed, so he played along to keep her happy. Not that he would ever admit that he actually loved the game, too.

“Hitoshi! Look! I finally caught the swordfish!” His wife gleefully shook her Switch screen in front of his face from between his legs where she sat on the floor. He grinned at her, seeing her character show off the catch with the silly pun in the speech bubble.

“Great job, babe. Make sure Blathers pays you handsomely for the time you spent looking for it.” He snickered as she rolled her eyes with a smirk. They’d been playing Animal Crossing for the past couple of months straight and she was obsessed with collecting all the bugs, fish, fossils, and crafting recipes. She would also spend hours creating new designs for clothes or tiles to make their shared island as perfect as possible.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be sure to collect on all the other things I’ve donated, too.” She turned back around, hunching over her Switch in her lap. “Now I can go back to making a new shirt.” Hitoshi smiled softly at the back of her head, feeling his affection for her welling up inside him. He’d have to cuddle her later, maybe after dinner.

Turning his attention back to the TV screen, he went back to collecting crafting materials and having fun with tormenting the villagers while he left his wife to her newest creation. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before she finally perked up. His gaze dropped back to her, noting the warm glow to her cheeks that always appeared when she was particularly pleased about something.

“Done! I’ve turned this into a shirt for you, so c’mere and I’ll give it to you.” A giggle left her, excited for him to have the shirt. He chuckled, knowing that particular giggle meant one of two things. Either she’d completely outdone herself and was extremely proud of herself, or it was something outrageously silly that he was being tricked into. He didn’t mind either way and immediately turned his character to meet her outside of the tailor shop.

“Alright. Do your worst, babe!” He snickered as she lightly swatted his shin. The shirt dropped on the ground and he picked it up. Going into his inventory, the name of the shirt simply said ‘1’ and he raised a brow before putting it on. His character made a flourish as the shirt changed and Hitoshi froze, unable to properly process what he was seeing.

The shirt itself wasn’t anything special, just a solid purple that matched the color of his hair. What threw him, however, were the bright words that were on proud display. “Number One Daddy”. He blinked a few times before his gaze slid down to his blushing wife, turning his raised brow on her. “I thought you weren’t into that kink? In fact, I think I specifically remember you vehemently stating how much it grossed you out.” His mouth kicked up into a teasing smirk as she blushed even brighter and hid her face against his knee.

“I do hate it!” She was quiet for a long time and he waited patiently for her to explain herself. “It’s not about the kink.” She finally said, her voice small as she peeked up at him. Hitoshi stared at her, brain refusing to pick up what she meant for several heartbeats. Dawning washed over him and his mouth fell open wordlessly. “Surprise?”

He blinked and his brain finally rebooted enough for him to close his mouth and swallow thickly. “Are you serious? Is this real? Are we… Are you… Babe. I need you to tell me right now if you’re trying to tell me what I think you are.” Nervously, she set her Switch aside on the coffee table and brought her hands to rest in her lap.

“Hitoshi, love of my life, I’m pregnant.” She gave him a small smile. “We’re going to have a baby.” Hitoshi sucked in a sharp breath, his chest tightening with emotion. They had talked a couple of times about kids, but never in too much depth. They both wanted to have one or two, and never really discussed much else; how soon they wanted one hadn’t come up. They hadn’t been trying, but they didn’t regularly use protection, either. It didn’t matter.

Moving forward, he gathered his wife in his arms and pulled her into his lap. “Babe, that’s amazing. I can’t believe it. You’re… seriously? You’re not pulling my leg here?” She laughed and nodded, leaning into him. He brought her in for a kiss, their lips melding together passionately. They broke apart and Hitoshi felt himself overwhelmed with emotion. “I’m gonna be a dad,” he whispered. “The best dad,” his wife whispered back, happy tears filling her eyes. He chuckled softly and reached up to wipe them away. His chest swelled with love and pride in the woman in his arms, the woman he called ‘wife’. They’d started a life together just over a year ago, and now it would only continue to grow as they brought new life into the world for them to cherish and raise. Together, just like in everything else they did, always together.

#my work #shinsou hitoshi #hitoshi shinsou #reader request

[percymakesgamesnow]

Visual art is hard but I'm harder

I spent the last few days working on my drawing skills. Currently my art is --as the french say-- "really bad", and someday I'd like for it to be passable-to-great. I really enjoy drawing, and while I get a lot out of it it's just not something I'm good enough at to be willing to put out into the world disclaimer-free. So, in the interest of someday being a control freak GameDev who designs every aspect of her game, I figure I should start working on these skills now rather than be an expert programmer and ready to ship my game suddenly realizing it looks like doodoo.

"But Percy," you ask, lip trembling feebly, "how do you plan on doing this? What steps are you taking to summit this next great artistic peak? How can you, a subpar drawm'n possibly garner this remaining skill to toil Wagner-like and create your masterpiece???" Your voice breaks slightly and I turn in my chair. As I stand, your gaze scrolls up as though searching apartment windows for your greatest fear. All of a sudden, I tower before you, and I squat down into a frog pose to meet your eye level. Creaking forward, I whisper in your ear: "Y o u T u b e t u t o r i a l s."

So far I've done Saultoon's Aseprite Beginner's Tutorial which was super helpful, and I made these lovely little donuts :)

The process involved using all the main tools in Aseprite, as well as changing colour palettes. I did my first batch in the default palette, the second one as Minecraft colours, and to challenge myself I did the third one with GameBoy colours. In the end, Saultoon requested that I shade the big donut? which meant I had to break out of the GB's four colours and also I have no idea how to shade so that made it tricky. I'm proud of the donuts though I think they're cute! Pixel art is great because my hand motor skills are poopy bad and that's not a barrier here. Oh, I also bought Aseprite. I made this decision bc after much research I concluded that it was the cheapest and had the cutest logo.

I do want to get better at art theory stuff though, which is why I also started working my way through Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, a book that I bought probably six years ago and cracked open twice. Holy shoot though it's such a good book. The writing is really engaging, if somewhat pretentious, and the content is succinct and inspiring. The first exercise was to draw a self portrait which I'm actually quite proud of. I showed it to two of the best visual artists I know and both said it looks "recognizably like me" which is huge tbh that's what I was going for. I'm not gonna post it here just because I don't feel like putting my recognizable mug on the internet today, but I probably will someday to show the improvement working through the book. Oh, also, the self portrait was apparently supposed to take half an hour, but I accidentally spent 3+ hours on it. This ate into my learning-code time, but it's all good bc I learned I really enjoyed trying to nail the details. The next exercises I'm definitely gonna set a timer for, because I think it's important to churn out lots of product when you're learning a new skill rather than being a perfectionist, but it wasn't wasted time and it made me really really excited for the day I'm good at this stuff. I genuinely think that once it's not such a chore I'll be drawing constantly. I love drawing bro oh my god lemme at em as soon as my hands do what my brain says to do and my brain can focus on understanding even the most basic principles of shading. Shading so hard y'all. I did an art class in high school and I've had art friends explain it to me like a thousand times and I just, , , , do not understand how to visualize light.

Anyways I'm off! I think today I'm gonna work on another project that requires me to draw and call that my art practice, and then either write a little music or do the next coding module. I haven't written music in ages and it fills me with such churning, freezer-burning anxiety and I'd really like to combat that considering it's the thing in my life that brings me the most fulfillment. This is sounding like another post rn though, so I'm gonna save my thoughts for when I write an update involving composition. I'm feeling good today, and I'm not gonna let my anxious little brain take up my precious time worrying about wasting my creative/productive potential when instead I could, idk, be creative and productive. Or do LITERALLY anything else. Get outta here you squirrely little guilt-soaked meat sponge, thanks for your concern but you're squandering my valuable minutes. I love you. Mwah <3

[dorimena]

I seriously love Bakugou and Todoroki. Especially Bakugou in his tight winter costume in S5. And I love Dom reader and femdom more than a sub. Can I pleaseee request Todoroki or Bakugou where the reader is recording them playing with a vibrator or dildo but get overstimulated because they can't cum from the cock ring because it's their punishments since they forgot their anniversary so reader also forget to stop the toys even if they beg reader to stop in the camera.if you don't mind the request

I don’t mind~ May your sin be forgiven with this prayer (˘⌣˘人) This sounds really, really sexy, so I had a blast imagining and putting this into words.

𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔱𝔢𝔯; bakugou katsuki & todoroki shoto

𝔴𝔬𝔯𝔡 𝔠𝔬𝔲𝔫𝔱; 2.1k

𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰; fem!reader, sex toys (dildo, vibrators, cockring), overstimulation, cam sex (recording), exhibitionism, semi-public, dom!reader, sub!character

𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔞𝔤𝔰; balcony sex (?), threesome, whiny Bakugou, weeping Todoroki, punishment, orgasm denial, aged-up characters, Bakugou and Todoroki are both 20+

𝔰𝔦𝔡𝔢𝔫𝔬𝔱𝔢; Unravel Me by Sabrina Claudio and Fuck Love by XXXTENTACION ft. Trippie Reid somehow helped me piece this together. Sorry if there are any typos! It’s not proofread.

𝕯𝖔𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝕿𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖊

“I-I-”

“W-we! We-”

You watch as both men struggle to speak, trying to ask for forgiveness, once again. It’s the fourth time this hour, the way Bakugou tries to open his mouth wide enough to not slur his words and Todoroki tries to correct Bakugou while keeping himself coherent.

It’s cute how the smartest guys in your life seem to fail miserably in having a decent human conversation

Well, you can’t blame them either, not with the way you keep toying around with the intensity of the vibrators taped to their dicks, cum drying on the toy enough to show anyone who looks up on the balcony that these two men, with such stature and muscles, are easily falling apart.

“Speak better, sweethearts. Can’t have you guys sounding so dumb on camera, right?”

Oh yeah, and you’re even recording them, in case anyone else would want to watch the rising proheros break.

You’re not actually going to show them to the public, but maybe to their friends. Maybe Kirishima would like to watch? Kaminari? Sero? Or maybe Iida? Midoriya?

Heck, the girls might even ask some day.

But you know what makes you curious about showing this video to their friends?

The way both Bakugou and Todoroki are presenting themselves beautifully, as if they’re pro porn stars saving the wanks rather than proheros saving the day.

It’s cute, how Bakugou’s puffing his muscular chest in the air as if they were the juiciest tits ever, which they are, and how Todoroki is somehow sensually humping the air with every buzz against his furious red tip.

Your eyes stay on the screen, making sure the lighting is entering nice enough to make it seem like they’re glowing, other than their post-orgasm glow.

How many times have they come by now?

“Babes, how many times have you cum?”

They both shake their heads.

Of course they wouldn’t know. They just take what they’re receiving. They’re making up for their mistake.

You still pout, tapping the touchable screen to even out the weird lighting as another cloud covers the sun, again.

Maybe giving their punishment out on the balcony wasn’t such a good idea.

As you look down to the floor below them, seeing the once growing puddle of cum slowly be pushed by the wind to trail off towards the side of the balcony, seeping through the small opening and probably dripping feets below is what keeps you positive, happy knowing people will eventually look up and wonder ‘what the fuck is going on?’

Well, either the drying cum gives away your dirty activities or it’s Todoroki’s wailing as an orgasm is ripped out of him forcibly.

Pity nothing comes from his tip, not since some time ago.

They both thought they deserve to cum and be satisfied?

Maybe you should’ve put the cock rings on them before making them come the first two times, but their reactions and frustration with how little some cum leaves or how their body reacts with the dry convulsions makes you giggle in pride.

Pretty babes.

“Todoroki, shut up. You’ll make the neighbors look over- oh! Oh, that’s what you want? I understand.”

And poor Todoroki is just shaking his head way too fast, enough to give him whiplash, but you just snicker as you reach over to a white box.

An unfamiliar white box.

Bakugou’s eyeing Todoroki in pity, wondering what the other will have to endure as he keeps trying to fight off his orgasm.

How he’s doing it, he has no clue. But god his dick hurts.

He’s been wanting to cum for the past 30 minutes, but with the way he resents this stupid cock ring, he’d rather not humilliate himself in front of you and figure out how else to please you.

Maybe he should offer to eat you out?

The way his body is super tense and his breathing is shallow doesn’t escape your attention, less how much pity is showing itself on his face as he shakes his face in disapproval with Todoroki’s recent dry orgasm.

Good thing you invested in this double dildo.

Neither of the boys take notice with how you’re lubing the dildo that looks like it’d belong to you. It’s quite pretty, long and thick enough to hopefully please your boys.

Even if they won’t get to cum.

“Bakugou,” you start, smiling as you watch his once bright eyes suddenly darken as shock takes over his face.

What the

“Fuck is that?!” He yells out, accidentally letting his body relax as it finally submits to the vibrations of the toy, his yell turning into an unbroken series of high-pitched moans, his hips losing control with how incredibly close he is.

“A double dildo, baby. Look! It even looks like if I’d be fucking you two, isn’t that fun?”

Bakugou shakes his head, gasping ‘no, no, no!’ before he falls forward, balancing himself with his palms as he sobs through his first dry orgasm. Maybe he shouldn’t have held back for so long, not with the way his body unforgivably goes through waves of pure unsatisfied pleasure.

Todoroki, meanwhile, is nodding eagerly, eyes welling up in happy tears at the idea of getting fucked, in getting more pleasure and love from you, even if this is meant to be punishment.

But, why are you exposing them like this?

They forgot your anniversary.

Your 3rd anniversary as a throuple, the anniversary Bakugou swallowed his bite and pride to confess to you how much he loves you and how he’s falling in love with Todoroki too; the anniversary Todoroki finally let loose the dam of emotions and even if a bit tipsy, agreed he too was falling in love with both you and Bakugou, how he hasn’t ever felt so understood, so loved, so safe.

So, yeah, how dare they forget?

But if they wanna be dumb, you’ll help with that.

It’s been a while now since you’ve turned off the vibrators and since you’ve prepped them well enough to take the dildo together.

The scene in front of you is gorgeous, ethereal, sublime.

You just want to ruin them like this everyday.

“Aagh! Ugh! F-fuck! Sl-slow do-own! Haaah~”

“S-sorry! ‘m s-sorry! Ca-an’t! Nnah…”

It’s cute watching them argue a bit, how Bakugou can’t take how fast Todoroki is fucking himself back on the dildo while also pushing the toy deeper into Bakugou. And Todoroki doesn’t actually look sorry, not with how his eyes keep crossing everytime he manages to get the toy to hit his sweet spot.

He’s trying so hard to win your forgiveness by putting up with this, but it’s kind of sad knowing you’re not going to stop anytime soon, or take off the cockrings.

Not like they know anyways.

Bakugou might’ve known, might’ve noticed, with the way he’s trying to keep this dragging as slow and steady as possible; with the way his precum is struggling to escape the confines the cockring gives; with how much his red and miserably hard dick keeps jumping with every push Todoroki’s ass gives him.

You’re lounging about, resisting the urge to get off to the scene in front of you, or else they’d start begging to let them please you as apologies, and knowing how sentimental this day is for you, you know you’d immediately give in.

But this is punishment for their forgetfulness.

So, as the cherry on top of this cum covered balcony sex sundae, you’ll also forget about them.

It lasted for a while as you got bored with how neither of them seemed to be reaching another orgasm.

If only the dildo had a vibration option.

But the vibrators still taped on their dicks will have to do.

So you turn them back on, and oh would you look at that! The cockrings could also vibrate.

The pleasure-filled scream coming from Bakugou and the cute, drawled whine of your name Todoroki lets out makes you feel grateful for thinking ahead, kinda.

Now both boys are writhing against each other, different ways to let out their desperations and dying need to properly cum manifesting in either rapid fucking on the dildo to simply submitting to the minstruations of the other party.

To put it in better, shorter words, Bakugou took the reigns in fucking the dildo in such rigor and strength that made Todoroki lay on his chest, ass still up as he simply took everything Bakugou kept pushing into him, mouth opened as hiccups and drool escaped. His eyes settle onto your form, watering as more tears gather on his waterline before dropping to the ground his face is resting on.

It feels so good, so, so good he can’t believe this is punishment. Even if he hasn’t been able to properly cum for some time now, he still thinks you’re being nice with them. Must be because of the anniversary that you sadly reminded them of.

He’s trying his best to push back on the dildo, wanting Bakugou to feel just as good as him, just as fucked as him.

And everytime the toy hits him just right, Todoroki sees stars, feels an all too familiar tingly sensation as he tries to grab his dick, but when you turn the vibrator up even more, his hands just lay on the ground, nails raking as he tries gripping on something, anything.

He really, really, really needs to cum. He wants to cum.

Keep being a good boy for you.

But all he gets is a choked sob of your name leaving his mouth as his eyes roll to the back of his head, eyebrows furrowed upwards as the strongest orgasm takes over his body, he’d be convinced there’s an earthquake happening. Small whimpers of how much it hurts leaves his mouth soon after, his dick twitching pathetically as it slowly becomes purple, barely a dribble of cum managing to escape.

Bakugou is in no good shape either, loudly moaning and crying out how good you’re fucking him, how he’s taking your cock, how good he is being, to please, please, please let him cum.

But actually cum, to let him contaminate the floor even more with his sperm, to let him taste it even, if that would make you happy and forgive him.

He’s close to wailing by now, hips going impossible faster as he forgets all about poor Todoroki riding out his high.

And the moment you turn on the vibrators intensity, he gets dizzy, breath getting stuck in his throat as his brain tries to process the spiraling of his warm, hot orgasm growing too much, burning him everywhere as if it were lava.

Small sparks sound on his fingertips as he howls and gets hurled into his own orgasm, back arching and head thrown back as his eyes roll to the back of his head.

He didn’t even notice the tears rolling down his cheeks, not with how his mind only cares about how good yet bad this orgasm feels.

Not even how loud his high-pitched wails of how good it feels, how much it hurts, is enough to alarm anyone near the radius of this defiling act.

Both boys are left shuddering or twitching through their intense dry orgasm, the way their bodies react with the built up cum in their dicks, with how hot and how wreckless they’re becoming with their quirks.

Still connected with the dildo, neither move, unless it’s some pathetic hump to help drag the orgasm a little more before they try to even remember what letter your name begins with.

Bakugou’s whimpering.

Todoroki’s crying silently.

Both blinking the haze out of their vision as they remember about the buzzing, about the relentless feeling on their really, really sensitive dicks.

Bakugou’s crying now.

Todoroki’s just busy mewling like a slut by now.

And when they both turn to look at you, they gasp so loudly one of them begins choking on air and the other with saliva.

Where’d you go?!

Come back!

And ‘come back’ and ‘forgive us’ is the only thing anyone could possibly hear for the next few hours as they fuck the dildo and let the vibrators do their job in milking more and more orgasms out of them.

If only they’d look closer, they would’ve seen a post-it note stuck on the tripod of the camera telling them you went to the kitchen and that they better come crawling.

Oh well, you’re enjoying the view anyways as you sip on some liquor of your liking, turning off the vibrators as you slowly walk to the balcony.

The sun’s beginning to set. You’re not that cruel in letting them fuck each other in the cold.

The bedroom is much better, and comfier.

Perfect for you to finish the job and let them finally, finally, get their deserving orgasms.

You’ll be sure to milk out

Every.

Single.

Drop.

#✿; impurity #bnha smut #mha smut #bakugou smut #todoroki smut #bakugou katsuki smut #todoroki shoto smut #sub bnha #sub bakugou #sub todoroki #ლ; blasphemy #𝖇𝖆𝖐𝖚𝖌𝖔𝖚 #𝖙𝖔𝖉𝖔𝖗𝖔𝖐𝖎.𝖘

[cazimagines]

Try not to forget me

Synopsis: Anon request: Can we have a reader who slept with Zemo when they were younger, they were basically each other’s first times. Reader was brought to the mission and when Sam mentions Zemo she only limits herself to saying that she knows him assuming she knows him from civil war. At some point, Zemo mentions it to Sam and since he can’t contain himself he has to ask reader to be sure. Maybe some smut, like ‘I don’t remember you being this good’

Word count: 8.5k

Author’s note: Welp it took me a while but it's finally here! I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I am such a sucker for the trope of seeing someone you once dated years after not seeing them again. Like give me all of that. Also I changed a little bit of the request but not much.

Warnings: Gun shots, SMUT (for mature audiences), Fingering, Vaginal sex, Stripping

Masterlist

(Please check out my master list to see what I will be writing next and if requests are open or closed)

Cross-posted to ao3 under the same username

Fingers fumbled with the clasp, the feeling of lips trailing up your thigh, sweet whispers in the air,

‘My princess, my everything’

His kisses on your neck, the desperation in his voice

‘I need you, all of you’

His fingers dug into your hips, his body moving like waves on top of you.

You call out his name to the night, losing yourself in the passion that consumed you.

Your hand tangled in his hair, tugging roughly which elicited a moan from his lips.

His eyes sparkled as he reached his first climax with you, ‘You’ll always be mine’

You woke up still with the taste of his lips upon your mouth. You felt the ghost of him linger on top of you, clinging to that long-ago memory.

But all things fade with time and the cold reality pulled you from the once pleasant dream drenched in sorrow. Sighing you pulled yourself off the made-up bed on the floor, already grabbing a hair tie to pull the bird’s nest of your hair out of your face. You hop over to where your prosthetic leg laid and strapped it onto your thigh.

Grabbing your phone you notice a few miss call from an old friend, calls you must have slept through. Pressing the number you hold it up to your ear as you wander around the apartment preparing for your day.

On the third ring, he picked up.

“Sam?” you ask

“Y/n! I wasn’t sure if I would hear back from you, it’s been a while”

“Yeah, things have been keeping me busy. It’s not like how it was when we were in the army”

You could hear him chuckle down the line, “It’s strange, I would have thought my time in the army would have been the craziest part of my life, but it’s hard to beat all the stories I have of aliens”

“At least you have stories to tell, what do I have? I served for a few years as a new American citizen, almost died a few times till one day I got shot in the leg”

“I don’t know losing your leg is one hell of a story, but speaking of almost losing your life. You remember that time I was able to pull you away from a landmine and you told me, ‘oh Sam thank you so much, I owe you so much’” Sam says down the line in a squeaky voice

“Since when have I ever spoken like that Sam? And why do I have a feeling I’m not going to like where this is going”

“Well that’s because it is time for me to cash in that favour”

That’s how you found yourself arriving at an airport, searching around to find Sam. As you walked around the corner you could make out what seemed to be three figures in the distance. As you got nearer one of them noticed you, and started waving exaggeratingly making you chuckle.

You finally reach him as Sam pulls you into a firm hug. “It’s good to see you again y/n,” he says as you pull away.

“Yes, after all these years of avoiding me” you quip making him laugh

“You know I’d never avoid you! It’s you who has always found an excuse to get out of meeting up with old friends”

“Well I’m here now”

“Speaking of old friends, let me introduce to you this man, 106 years old, dermatologists hate him”

The man Sam referred to now stepped forward, holding out his hand, “Hi, I’m Bucky” he says, smiling slightly as you shake his hand.

“Y/n, you look good for your age”

“He moisturises” Sam buts in making Bucky send him a look, “It’s complicated” he mutters and you nod.

“I met Steve once, I understand,” you tell him, making his eyes light up at the mention of his old friend.

“Super soldier serum, the ability to be almost immortal, another reason as to why we have all gathered here to prevent it”

A shiver ran through your spine as you heard that long ago accent which you had removed from your voice. You focus on the man behind Sam, someone you should have noticed when you first appeared.

It had been over twenty years since you had last seen him yet you could still recognise the way his lips twitched up at the sides but dipped in the middle, the softness of his warm brown eyes, and the slight angular twist his eyebrows had. His hair was more well kept than when you had last seen him. Then he was still going through his rebellious phase, letting his hair grow unkempt but now he had a sense of refinement about him. He knew he was ageing like fine wine and now instead of trying to rebel from the prestigious life he had like when you knew him, he lavished in it, enjoying the money that was of so easy access to him and spent it on all the finer luxuries of life.

“Y/n, this is Zemo. You might remember seeing him on the news, he’s the one who framed Bucky”

You knew him more than that, more than any of them could ever know him. The dream from this morning swarmed your thoughts again, taunting you as if your brain knew what was to come.

Sokovia had been your home country, a place you had longed to forget, leave dead. Zemo, Helmut, was your childhood friend. You couldn’t remember the time when you first met as it felt like he had always been in your life. Everything you two did, you did together. Attending the same schools, going around to each other’s houses, exploring the wildness together. You two were closer than siblings. Your family had nowhere as near the same money as Zemo’s family had, yet that didn’t seem to matter, at least not when you were children. It was no surprise to people when eventually you two started dating. There had been bets on how long it would take for Zemo to gather the courage to ask you out. You and Zemo had been each other’s firsts, first partner, first kiss, first making love, which is where your dream had come from. It was cringy to say it but you felt like you loved him with every inch of your soul, and you knew Zemo was just as dedicated to you.

That’s why the break-up was so messy.

You were the one who called it. You had to. Zemo might have been blind to what it meant to be a Baron at that time but you weren’t. His parents allowed him to have his little indulges, allowed you two to be friends, to date. But at the end of the day, he would always be from the higher class and your family from the lower class. They would of never let you two marry so you had to call off the relationship before you got too deep, to save yourself some pain. You’d hoped that you two could still be friends, though it would have hurt, you still wanted to be around him but that was never meant to be.

At first, he didn’t believe you, he laughed it off as a good joke till he realised you were being serious. Then was the confusion, he wouldn’t let you leave. He needed to know what he did wrong, what could have happened for you to want to break up with him. Then was the obsession. He wouldn’t leave you alone, turning up to your house every day to beg for another chance, following you around trying to pick the relationship back up, threatening any guy that went near you. Then the heartbreak when he finally accepted it was over. He didn’t leave his house for months, you heard rumours he drank himself to sleep most nights, till one time at the dead of the night you found him pounding on your door, shouting to let him in. He was pissed and crying, imploring at you to give him a second chance, begging for you to tell him what he could do to get back with you. He would do anything, give you all his money, abandon his family and run away with you. You helped him back home and told him to leave you alone. And to give it to him he did because then came the anger. You would see him outside and he would pretend he didn’t even know who you were. You’d walk past and accidentally hit shoulders and he shouted at you to watch where you were going. Soon he would be seen with lots of different women, taking them to all the places he took you, dancing at parties. Whenever you looked over to them they were making out and it pained you deeply for what you had to give up. Eventually, you ran away. You couldn’t keep torturing yourself seeing Zemo move on with someone else while you were still suffering on the inside, not just for losing the boy you love but the person who had been your best friend for as long as you could remember.

You left Sokovia to live in America, completely ridding yourself of your whole past identity. There you decided to enlist in the Army which is where you had met Sam, served with him for a few years till you were forced to retire early due to losing your leg. You checked up on Zemo every once in a while, it wasn’t too hard with the Sokovian news constantly obsessing over him. He married the woman he moved onto, the one you always saw making out with him. You suppose he truly must have loved her because it was your birthday when his son was born. While he celebrated the happiest day of his life you spent the day at the bottom of a bottle drinking away the loneliness. You still remember the moment you found out what had happened to Sokovia. You hadn’t been back there in years but it was still your home, where you had all of your fond memories, now all gone.

You didn’t see anything in the news about Zemo after that, he and his family completely vanished so you had to assume the worst. Till you finally saw him on the news. It was hardly like the boy you once knew. The Zemo you knew was kind, empathetic, caring, beautiful in every way he could be yet the man you saw there was a murderer, cold-hearted, reckless. What had happened to the boy you once knew?

You could make guesses, his family was nowhere in sight and you could only imagine how losing the woman you love and your child could hurt you. You hated imagining all the pain Zemo has gone through.

“Yes, I remember seeing him on the news,” you tell Sam. Both you and Zemo stared at each other, your eyes unwavering.

He knew who you were. He knew from the moment you turned around that corner. As he watched you warmly greet Sam and shake hands with Bucky. He watched the person he never thought he would see again stand right in front of him, not even noticing him.

But now you stood there, staring him down. Both of you almost speaking through your eyes. Would the other one bring up the past? Try to acknowledge all that has happened between you or is that dead, left forgotten. Will you two pretend to have never met before, letting years of memories fade.

Zemo was first to speak.

“I see my reputation isn’t too favourable”

“That’s what you get for blowing up the UN,” you say scowling at him as you cross your arms

Zemo opens his mouth to say something but Sam gets here first, “Y/n served in the Army with me so you better be careful with what you say Zemo”

Zemo’s eyes then flicker back to you tilting his head, like he always used to do, in interest.

“Why is he even here?” you ask, finally pulling your eyes away from him to Sam and Bucky

Sam turns to Bucky with a plastered on a fake smile, “Why don’t you explain Bucky”

Bucky sighs as he glances over to you, “As Sam mentioned to you on the call we are trying to track down this group of super-soldiers called the Flag Smashers. We need Zemo here to help us track down where they got the serum and help us so no one else becomes a super-soldier”

“And you trust him?” you scoff, glaring back to Zemo who just smirked at you

“We have no other choice” Bucky mutters, scowling over at Zemo

“I can assure you, I won’t do anything to betray your trust. For once all of our goals are aligned that it would do us no good to go against each other.”

“I’ll hold judgment till later,” you reply bitterly.

Swifty Zemo swings on the heels of his feet, turning around to start walking away, obviously expecting all of you to follow him. Sighing in annoyance you trail after him.

As you had predicted both you and Zemo were pretending to not know each other, perhaps for the sake of the mission or perhaps for the sake of your well beings. You’re not sure if you could cope even acknowledging the past you two had. He’d been the person you had been closest to, someone you shared all your secrets, all your thoughts and feelings with. Someone who you would have taken a bullet for in the blink of an eye and to suddenly lose all of that, it wrecked you. You had finally managed to build yourself up again, to try and move on and then he comes straight back into your life. It’s as if there is some strange omnipotent god up there and it loved to torment every waking moment of your life.

“So all this time you’ve been rich?” Sam asks and you all catch up with Zemo and see him walking towards what you assumed was his private aeroplane.

“I’m a Baron, Sam, my family was royalty till your friends blew up my country”

There was a slight change of tone for when he said ‘my’ not enough for Sam and Bucky to pay attention to it but enough for you to feel the slight twist in your heart as you thought back to the country that used to be yours, long ago.

As you got closer you observed a man standing by the plane, ready to welcome Zemo aboard and you felt your heart stop for a moment. Oeznik. The man had aged since you last saw him, he had fallen to the tolling of time but he still had those warm, caring eyes.

Memories swept over you of your childhood as you observed him. He has always been Zemo’s assistant, hired by Zemo’s parents when they were much younger. You could remember times when you and Zemo would be running down the corridors, not where you were supposed to be and Oeznik would find you two, not telling you off but smiling at you two, saying how Zemo’s parents were looking for him. He would sneak you two Turkish delights even if it was only an hour before dinner. Anywhere you two wanted to go he would drive you there. Whenever you slept over he would prepare your favourite meals, making sure everything was just how you liked in the room you would stay in. He was almost like another father figure to you and Zemo.

And now there he was, greeting Zemo. Zemo kissed him on the cheeks fondly before heading inside. Sam and Bucky both follow up but you take a moment to turn to look at him.

“Oeznik” you whisper

He smiles warmly down at you, placing his hand on the side of your arm. “It’s good to see you again madam”

You nod your head, unable to say anymore without letting your emotions get the better of you so you choose to head inside.

You could feel his eyes on you as you enter. You glance up to him and you know he knows why you took a little longer to get onto the plane. It was that knowing look in his eye, the slight twinkle of amusement but also sadness.

You frown realising you’d have to take a seat opposite Zemo, Sam and Bucky already choosing to sit on the other side, showing their dislike for him. You freeze for just a moment making Zemo gesture to the seat in front of him, smirking as he tilts his head. You huff, not bothering to hide your displeasure, taking the seat in front of him but refusing to even look at him.

A few minutes later Zemo chuckles as Oeznik brings out two drinks, a glass of champagne which he offers to Zemo, and a glass of rum which he offers to you. You’re favourite drink. After all this time he still remembered.

You kindly thanked Oeznik, taking the glass as you avoid the confused eyes of Sam who was wondering why you got a drink and he didn’t and the eyes of Zemo, which held an emotion you couldn’t quite recognise.

“The food is out but I will see if there is some good food in a gallery,” he tells Zemo and starts to turn away but then Zemo speaks.

“If it doesn’t pass the food test, give it to them,” he says, speaking in sokovian and gesturing to Sam and Bucky.

You weren’t prepared for the surge of pain in your heart as you heard Zemo use the language of your people. Though it had been over twenty years since you last heard it, you could still remember it perfectly.

Oeznik laughs, “It’s good to have you back sir,” he says, then nods to you before leaving again. Zemo smiles at Sam and Bucky, enjoying the notion of how they didn’t know what he said, before his eyes swiftly turn back to you, knowing you know exactly what he said.

He takes a swing of his drink before speaking again, “It’s kind of him to remember your go-to drink” he says in Sokovian.

And there it was. The first acknowledgement of the past between you two. Your eyes burn into his head as you realise just what he was doing. It was a test. He spoke in Sokovian for just you to understand, seeing if you were to take the bait and talk back in Sokovian. He wanted to see if you were willing to acknowledge the past between you two as well.

But Sam and Bucky had no idea where you were from. As far as they knew from your accent you were American and you planned to keep that secret. You weren’t going to play in Zemo’s little game, you refused to take your turn. Instead, ignoring what he had said to stare at the ground.

He waits for a few moments before accepting you weren’t going to reply. Sighing he turns to Sam and Bucky.

“You don’t know what it’s like to be locked in a cell” he starts “Oh, that’s right, you do” he then carries on, taunting them. If he can’t mess with you then he’ll mess with them.

“Why don’t you tell us about where you are going” Sam replies, ignoring Zemo’s attempt at taunting.

Zemo then instead turns to the book in his hand, thumbing through it. “Sorry, I was just fascinated by this. I don’t know what to call it but this part seems to be important. Who is Nakajima?” he asks turning to Bucky

Instantly Bucky was out of his seat, his hand around Zemo’s throat pulling him back as he leans in towards his face.

“If you touch that again, I’ll kill you” he whispers

Zemo nods as Bucky lets him go, letting out a slight breath he had been holding in. Bucky glares as Zemo has he takes his seat again.

“I’m sorry. I understand that list of names. People you’ve wronged as the Winter Soldier.”

“But you’re not sorry” you abruptly say, making all eyes turn to you. “Ever since we’ve sat down you’ve been taunting us, trying to stir up trouble. Soon your annoyance will outweigh any use you have for us”

“I’m sorry if I have caused you any offence, Princess, it is never my intention to upset any of you”

But it was. It fucking was. Because he knew just how much pain that nickname brought to your heart. Princess. That’s what he had always referred to you as when you dated. In his eyes, you were a princess, his princess. You clench your jaw, trying to stop the tears that swelled in your eyes. Something Zemo picked up on and himself felt pained seeing your reaction.

“Don’t call her Princess. Her name is y/n” Sam says, glaring at Zemo.

“My apologies, it was my fault to refer to your girl like that”

Instantly both yours and Sam’s eyes widen at his words.

“We’re not, that’s not-” Sam starts to say, fumbling with his words

“We’re just friends” you but in, glaring at Zemo for you knew why he said that.

“Y-yeah” Sam replies, looking between you and Zemo as you stare at each other. Zemo tilts his head slightly, the edge of his lips twitching up.

“I see”

“Now perhaps you could stop taunting us, Zemo, and answer Sam’s original question about where the hell we are going”

If you had blinked you would have missed it but just for a split second, as his last name fell from your lips, you could see him flinch. These days everyone referred to him by his last name, never his first name. And although in the past you had always called him by his first name, you, like them, were using his last name. That hurt more than he thought it would.

“I’m afraid I can’t say just yet, but all will be relieved in due time’

You just groan, rolling your eyes and then choosing to stare out the window trying to forget all about the man that sat in front of you.

Hoping to alleviate the conversation Sam nods to the book Bucky took back from Zemo.

“I’ve seen that book, it’s Steve’s book for when he came out of the ice. I told him about trouble man. He wrote it in that book. Did you hear it? What did you think?”

“I like 40’s music so…” Bucky grumpily replies

“You didn’t like it!?” Sam exclaims leaning forward

“I liked it”

“It’s a masterpiece James. Complete. Comprehensive. It captures the African American experience” Zemo buts in, speaking with his hands as he looks over to Bucky

Sams’s eyes face moves from looking at Bucky, to looking at Zemo then back to Bucky.

“He’s out of line, but he’s right. It’s great. Everybody likes Marvin Gaye”

Inside your head, you scoff at Zemo as he talked as if he was sophisticated with music, ‘like you didn’t listen to Nirvana all the time’ you thought. From that point you ignored what they were saying, sipping your drink as you stare out the window. Today had taken a complete turn from what you ever could have imagined it would have turned out to be. And little did you know it was about to get a whole lot messier.

-

“No fucking way. You can’t make me do that”

“You have to if you want to blend in for the mission” Zemo explains

“She can blend in, in many other ways, she doesn’t have to pretend to be your partner,” Sam says arguing for you

“They will be suspicious of her though and it could risk the whole mission but if she was my partner they wouldn’t be suspicious”

“He’s right y/n” Bucky adds, “I don’t want to be doing this either but if we want to find out where the super-soldier serum has come from we need to”

Zemo nods to Bucky in thanks and then looks to you, the corner of his lip twitching up in amusement that Bucky was backing him up and seeing your anger.

He was deliberately trying to antagonise you. Making you pretend to be his partner for the mission, was his way to get back at you for the pain you caused him when you broke things off. You didn’t think you could cope with having to pretend to be his partner for it, it would just bring up all the pain of what had been lost between you two, what you had to let go of. But they were right. You had to do it for the sake of the mission. If Bucky could pretend to the winter soldier again for the mission the least you could do was this.

“Are you seriously taking his side Bucky, if she doesn’t want to be that then-” Sam starts to argue but you cut him off.

“It’s okay Sam, Bucky’s right I need to do it”

Sam opens his mouth in surprise and then moves over to stand in front of you, placing his hand on your shoulder. “No you don’t y/n, don’t listen to them”

You place your hand over Sam’s hand on your shoulder, rubbing it slightly. “I’ll be okay with it Sam. It’s not like I’d be dating him”

Your eyes flicker to Zemo who had been glaring at Sam now turned his eyes to you, his lips almost twitching into a frown but he stops them.

“I won’t wear that dress though,” you say, your eyes looking down to the short dress Zemo held in his arms.

He opens his mouth to argue against that as well but you stop him, “No Zemo, I won’t be wearing that, that is final”

He bites back his words, smacking his lips together as he nods, “If that is what you wish”

You weren’t ashamed of your prosthetic leg. It was a reminder to you for all you had given to people. But you weren’t about to walk around Madripoor with it being showed off to everyone. And a part of you wasn’t ready for Zemo to see you with it, though you don’t know why.

You hadn’t been to Madripoor before but it didn’t surprise you that Zemo knew the place well. It looked like the shady place you would find him in. As soon as you stepped out of the car Zemo’s arm wrapped around your waist. It fitted like nothing had changed in the time between. Your face instantly turned to him to tell him to let go but he held his finger up to your lips to stop you, “For appearance y/n, you are after all, for this evening, my partner”

Begrudgingly you accept it and don’t try to move his arm away as you walk together. Sam walks up beside you and as you turn to look at him he rolls his eyes. You chuckle at Sam then felt Zemo’s grip on your waist tighten.

As you walk into the bar Zemo takes a seat on the stool. You glance around but all the other seats had been taken. Smirking Zemo pats his lap, “Hop on princess”

You grasp onto his shoulder, pinching it harshly to cause him some pain as you position yourself on his lap, but he just chuckles at your reaction, his hand instantly going to rest on your tigh which was thankfully covered by your trousers.

“Don’t call me princess” you whisper angrily to him

He leans forward, his lips by your ear as you feel his breath, “We have to make it realistic princess, plus I think that would be the sought of a nickname I would give you if we were dating”

He presses a lip to your cheek as he pulls back from you, chuckling as he sees how your cheeks heat up and the glare you grace him with.

“Hello gentlemen and lady,” the barman says finally coming over to you, “I wasn’t expecting the smiling tiger”

“His plans changed, we have a business to do, with Selby,” Zemo says, trying to take over all conversation so no one gave themselves away.

“And she does as well?” he asks, nodding to you

“Anywhere I go she goes with me” Zemo replies, chuckling as he looks at you with a smile on his lips

“Isn’t that right princess?”

You try your best to push back the anger you felt, instead, forcing a smile as you look back at Zemo, “Of course my love” you tell him then leans forward to place a quick peck on his lips.

As your lips lightly brush against his you could hear the slight hitch in his breath and as you lean your head on his chest you wonder if he could feel how fast your heart was beating in your chest.

It’s just for appearances, that’s all you tell yourself but even though it was brief you could still feel the warmth of his lips on yours, that comforting feeling that you hadn’t felt in so long and it was as if all the buried emotions you had come flooding back. Here you were sitting on his lap, kissing him as if nothing had changed and for a moment you wondered if that could be the case. Could you two go back to what time was like before?

But you couldn’t. Not only was it down to the fact that Zemo was a wanted criminal, but he had moved on from you. He fell in love with another, he married her. Any feelings he had for you were long gone and this was just him messing with you, and you didn’t want to let him know the feelings you still had for him after all this time.

The barman seems to accept your display though, choosing to focus on Sam instead as he makes him his ‘usual’ drink.

Zemo orders you and him a drink which you thankfully take from his hand, hoping to drown your feelings away with the alcohol.

A man comes up behind you and instantly Zemo lifted you off your lap, pushing you behind him as he stands up to face the man.

“Got word from on high, you’re not welcomed here,” he tells Zemo,

“Hm” Zemo replies, nodding as he takes the man’s words, “I have no business with the power broker, but if he insists he can either come talk to me...” he finishes, nodding over to Bucky

“Or bring Selby for a chat”

The man leaves as Bucky looks over to Zemo. As Zemo turns around once again his arm wraps around your waist.

“A power broker, really?”

“Every kingdom needs its king. Let’s just pray we stay under his radar”

“Do you know him?” you ask and Zemo looks down at you amused by your question, “Only by reputation”

“In Madripoor he is judge, jury and executioner”

Zemo’s eyes focus now on another man coming towards him. Turning back around to the bar he speaks to Bucky in Russian just as the man places his hand on Zemo’s shoulder. You all turn around to watch as Bucky grabs the man and starts to attack him. You’d seen violence before but it still made you wince knowing how Bucky didn’t want to do this.

After one particular nasty hit without thinking your hand grasps onto his hand, needing something to hold on to. As soon as you realised what you had done you swiftly try to pull your hand back but Zemo holds onto it tight, refusing to let it go. You could feel his gaze turn to you but you choose to ignore his cocky face and instead focus on Bucky.

You stand out of the way as Bucky slams the man onto the table and Zemo leans forward to let Bucky know not to take it too far. That was your ticket though as then you were being shown the way to see Selby.

The meeting itself wasn’t too bad. Zemo held onto your hand as he pulled you over to sit with him. He talked to Selby while you just sat on his lap. Selby didn’t pay any attention to you, which you were thankful for. Things were going smoothly until Sam’s phone ringed.

That’s how you found yourself running along with Bucky, Sam and Zemo avoiding gunfire. As you ran you heard one gunfire and felt your prosthetic leg move slightly as the bullet went straight through it.

Zemo must have seen what happened as well, but not knowing you had a prosthetic leg, he wrapped his arms suddenly around your legs, picking you up bridal style. He ran off to the side, leaving Bucky and Sam behind as he hid you down an alleyway.

“Zemo let go of me!” you hissed, hitting him in the chest as he stopped running. He instead places you on the ground, growling at you not to move as he starts to check all his pockets in his coats. Instead, you do move, getting up off the floor and he looks at you angrily. “I said don’t move! You’ll injure yourself more”

You lean down and jank up slightly the trouser leg, showing the fake metallic leg underneath.

“I’m fine Zemo! It’s fake. Now we need to go and find Sam and Bucky”

But Zemo was frozen, staring down at your leg in shock. Because at that moment was the realisation for him. All this time he had been teasing you, testing the waters of how far he could push you to admit to the past. Messing around with you as if you were two lovesick teenagers again. But you had both changed, and he was refusing to realise that until now. Because he didn’t want to acknowledge the fact you were no longer the woman he once knew. The one person he knew better than himself and he had still half-believed that was the case until now. You had a fake leg, lost in what he assumed was the army which you and Sam had been in. He didn’t know because the truth was you were almost a stranger to him now, and he hated that. He just wanted things to be the way they once were. That’s what he desperately craved but it couldn’t be.

“Okay,” he simply says and nods, finally pulling his gaze away from your leg and up to you. Following your lead, he chases after you to find out where Sam and Bucky had gone.

-

Sam paced around the main room of Sharon’s house. His mind was occupied with so many thoughts it was hard to concentrate but there was one that stuck out like a splinter in a thumb. What the hell was going on between you and Zemo? He wasn’t stupid he could pick up on something, the looks two you gave each other, the tension in the air, the way you reacted when you first saw him. Sam considered himself your best friend, though you two hadn’t seen each other in ages. So it bugged him how this was obviously something big to you, and he didn’t know what it was.

Zemo sat at the table by the side, quietly drinking some whiskey. Both you and Bucky had decided to retire for the night while Sam decided to stay up just so he could find out the truth.

“You look like you are trying to burn a hole through my head by the way you are staring at me Sam” Zemo says, finally looking up from his glass to Sam who was glaring at him.

“Is something the matter?” he asks

“You and y/n. What’s up with that”

Zemo chuckles, looking back down into his glass, “Ah that”

“I’m her best friend, I know everything about her, apart from this apparently”

Zemo’s eyes snapped back to Sam but this time there was no amusement in them, instead a angry glaze as he frowned, “Best friend?” he repeats, standing up and walking over to Sam. “You hardly know her at all”

Sam scoffs as he raises an eyebrow at Zemo attempting to get into his face. “And you do?”

“Yes” Zemo instantly replies, “I know she was born in Novia Grand, Sokovia. Just like me. I know which schools she attended, the same as mine, I know what her favourite meals are, we had them whenever she came round to my house. I know her favourite band, I took her to their first concert. I know everything little thing about her Sam, and you know nothing”

Sam’s eyes widen at Zemo’s confession, realisation dawning on him. “You were childhood friends”

“More than friends Sam, we were lovers. We were the first people we dated, we were each other first kiss, we were each other first time” Zemo claims as if bragging to Sam

“Yet you didn’t know she was in the Army, you didn’t know she had a prosthetic leg did you?” Sam asks and when he sees the slight fall in Zemo’s face he smiles, “You used to know her Zemo, but obviously, you don’t know the person I know now”

-

With a pair of tweezers lent to you from Sharon, you pull your trouser leg up and search around in your prosthetic leg attempting to find the bullet lodged inside and pull it out. You could see the bullet but you couldn’t quite get the right angle to pull it out making you groan in annoyance.

You were about to throw the tweezers across the room in anger when you heard a knock against the door. You were currently sitting in one of Sharon’s guest rooms as lot were staying at Sharon’s place for the night to rest up then go and find the scientist tomorrow morning.

“Y/n?” you hear his voice call out from the other side

You sigh rolling your eyes, “What do you want” you snap

“May I come in? We need to talk”

“I don’t want to talk”

You hear the click of the door and Zemo pushes it open to stare at you in a slight annoyance. His eyes then move down to the tweezers in your hand and your leg. He takes a few steps towards you, his hand out as he closes the door.

“Let me”

You hesitate for a moment but finally, give in and hand him the tweezers. He pulls out a seat beside you and gently puts the tweezers through the hole in your leg.

“How did it happen?” he asks as he concentrates on your leg while at the same time trying to create polite conversation.

“Like most injuries out there. One of the soldiers was on the floor, shot a round of bullets into my leg. The doctor there couldn’t save my leg so I had to get it amputated”

He nods, finally grasping the bullet with the tweezers and started to pull it out. “Serving in the army, it’s admirable. Something very like you. I was in the Sokovian armed forces. EKO scorpion”

You nod as you watch him pull the bullet out and place it to the side. “I remember reading about it in the news”

His eyes, flickering to you, glimmer with amusement. “So you kept track of me?”

Your cheeks heat up in embarrassment as he caught you out. You glance away from his intense stare instead to the table. “Did you really expect that I didn’t? You once were my best friend Zemo. It’s hard to let that go. I saw you got married, had a child. I’m sorry about what happened to them”

It was Zemo’s turn to look away now, feeling the pain in his heart ignite as he thinks back to his previous family. “My son, he was born on your birthday”

“I’m surprised you remember my birthday”

He smiles slightly, finally turning his eyes back to yours, “Of course I do. Every year I’d drink a toast to you. You said that I was your best friend and hard to let go of that. Well, it’s the same both ways y/n. I couldn’t just forget about your existence.”

“I had to leave” you whisper

“I know. I know why you left, and I know why you broke up with me in the first place”

Your eyes flash to his in surprise and widen seeing how they were swarmed with tears. “Because of my family, they never would of let us marry because of your status. Y/n I would have left all of that behind for you, without a second thought”

Shaking your head you reply, “I couldn’t have asked that of you Zemo”

“And that’s one of the reasons why you are so perfect. You always put me before you, now this time I am asking you to finally let yourself choose. If you want me to leave say and I will leave. But if you don’t say I will stay with you, and I won’t let you leave again”

“We’re not who we once were, Helmut” you mutter, finally letting yourself use his first name and with that, he already knew your choice. His hand goes up to cradle the side of your face gently, moving it nearer to him.

“Then let’s discover each other, all over again”

Your eyes fluttered shut as he pushed his lips on you, fitting perfectly against yours as if they were made for you. He poised there, hoping he wasn’t being too forward but his lips smirked as you started to move your lips on him, crashing them on top of his for action, which he kindly gave.

His tongue poked your bottom lip, begging for entrance. One which you allow as you wrap your fingers behind his neck, getting tangled in his hair.

You could hardly believe this is where you were, once again with Zemo, his lips upon yours, desire between your legs. In the last twenty years, you had often dreamt of reuniting with Zemo, experiencing this moment again but you never thought it would happen. But here you were.

His hands travelled down your back, swooping under your butt as you wrapped your leg around his waist. Swiftly he lifts you off the chair and walks you over to the bed, placing you down on it and crawling on top of you.

His lips trail down your cheek, across your jawline and down onto your neck, sucking on that delicate pulse spot. A moan escapes from your lips and he pulls back chuckling. “For so long now I’ve longed to hear you moan for me Princess”

You just groan, your hand pushing his face back into your neck making him laugh but he quickly goes back to making a hickey on it. His fingers trail down to your shirt, slowly lifting it and once again he pulls away to be able to lift the shirt off you.

He holds back for a moment to admire your beauty. His hands move behind your back and swiftly undoes the clasps on your bra, tugging it off. He groans seeing you for all your glory and buries his head in your boobs. ‘Oh how I have missed these’

While his mouth latches onto your breasts, smothering them in kisses as his hands go to undo the buttons on your trousers. He starts to tug them down, with no sense of being gentle but rather a primal urge taking over him. He manages to tug them off you and then his lips move down even further. He trails his tongue from your breasts down your belly, leaving a trail of saliva. As he reaches your underwear, his teeth latch onto it. With a slight groan from his lips, he then pulls them off, sliding them down your legs and flicking them off to the floor along with your other discarded clothes.

He sighs in contentment as he buries his face into the side of your thigh as his fingers trail your prosthetic leg. Leaning forward he places a kiss on it, then trails upwards, littering it in soft kisses. The only softness you’ll be experiencing tonight.

As you feel him get nearer your core you let out a shudder in anticipation, as you shudder you feel his lips suddenly press against your core. He instantly latches into your clit, his tongue dancing on it, twisting it in circular motions. Your hands instantly grasp his hair, holding him close to your core, not letting him go. Not that he ever want to. Sandwiched between your legs is where he belonged.

“If I remember correctly, you always liked this part”

You let out a shocked gasp as suddenly a finger presses against your entrance and then slips inside of you, with ease from how wet you have become. He slides the finger all the way into the end, letting a moan rip out of your throat.

“It seems I do remember correctly”

“Instead of commentating everything why don’t you put that mouth to good use” you groan, pushing his face back into your crotch. His tongue instantly went back to your clit as he started to thrust his finger in and out of you, making sure it brushes against your walls. As you start to let more little moans he thrusts another finger inside, opening slightly to stretch you out.

You could feel the knot in your stomach tightening as he worked his tongue on your clit and his fingers in and out of you at a rapid pace. Then his fingers hit just at that right spot and your walls fluttered around him. You hardly got enough time to choke out a warning before you were gushing all over his fingers. When your climax started to edge away he pulled his face back from your clit, removing his fingers and while holding your eye contact he stuck his tongue out, lapping up your juices on his fingers.

He moans slightly as he licks it up, his eyes fluttering half close, ‘Mine Gott, I forgot just how good you tasted’

“Well let’s see if you are as good with that dick as you were in the past” you tease, pulling his face towards your to encompass in another kiss. As your hands hold his face to yours his fingers feel up the side of your waist, ghosting over your skin creating goosebumps.

You could sense when his fingers started to trail to his trousers though and you pull away from his lips making him whine.

“Strip for me”

He tilts his head smirking as he looks up into your playful eyes. “As you wish my princess,” he says as he climbs off you, standing at the end of the bed. Slowly he tugs off his large coat off, laying it on the side of the bed. Next, he works on his turtleneck, slowly tugging it up to his chest, then over his head. Soon it joins the steady growing pile of discarded clothes. Next, he quickly tugged down his trousers and boxers, his patience starting to wear thin.

As he pulled them down exposing his dick you hummed in approval. “Now isn’t that a sight for sore eyes”

“And you were complaining at me for talking” Zemo murmurs, stepping forward to crawl back onto you but your hold your hand up to stop him. “Put the coat back on”

“I see in our time apart you’ve become more demanding,” he says as he picks up the coat and slides it back onto his naked body. As he finally gets to crawl back on top of you, you grasp the fur collar and pull him closer to your face.

You run your fingers through his hair, making it even messier than it was before. Parts of it fell onto his forehead. His hands move down to hold his dick by your entrance, rubbing it against your folds. For a moment he hesitates, moving his head to rest against your forehead in anticipation.

“You’re still as beautiful as when I last saw you”

With that, he pushes into you, rather quickly because of how desperate he was to feel you around him. As he bottoms out he groans, pushing his face into the crook of the neck as you grasp the back of his head gasping. He stays still for a minute, treasuring the feeling of your walls clasping onto him. Then slowly he pulls mostly out of you, till just his head hung in your, and then thrust back into you.

He started to pick up speed, hearing the increase of your moans against his ear. His grunts and moans start to intertwine with yours as you both chase your pleasure.

“Gott, you are so perfect my princess. You feel so good around me” he’d groan into your ear as his hips thrust repeatedly into your, the sounds echoing on the walls of the room. His fingers sneak down your belly to your core, rubbing against your clit. Instantly your back was arched and your fingers grasped onto the coat.

“God Helmut, I don’t remember you being this good” you moan and with your words he speeds up, pumping inside of you. His head kept brushing up inside that perfect spot inside and with his fingers twisting on your clit you could feel your climax steadily approaching.

“H-Helmut, I’m going to, soon I’m-” you tried to get out between moans but there was no need to as Zemo could feel how close you were for the way your walls clung around him tightly.

“Come for me Princess, let me feel you. I need to feel you again my love, after so long”

And his words were music to your ears as you feel the knot within you snap and your wetness gushing over his dick. Zemo bites down on your neck, trying to be gentle, as he feels your walls grasp you even tiger as he thrusts into you. Not long after he felt his own release coming and as you lay there panting he thrusts in time to his release until he squeezed out every last drop.

He hovers over you for a moment, panting, wanting to remain in your warmth for just a moment longer but eventually he pulls out and collapse beside you.

He wraps his arm around your waist and pulls you into his side, burying his face in your hair.

“Thank you Helmut” you whisper

“No my princess, thank you for forgiving me for everything I’ve ever done to you. I don’t deserve your forgiveness, I don’t deserve your love but I desperately need it. I won’t lose you again my darling”

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[betweentheracks]

Heyo! Not to be too nosy here but you mentioned you're in bad health and recovering, and I just wondered what happened? Also how would it impact your career since, from how you've made it all seem thus far, it's a highly active and demanding job?

Hope you take care and get well! You appear quite strong and not like you'd take whatever has happened just lying down, so here's to you!! 🙏💓

No sweat and no worries here, I dont find this particularly invasive. If anything, I'm flattered you care to ask after me lol. 😁

A few weeks back I met a friend I hadn't seen in some time for lunch. This was against my better sense of caution that I've held firmly to throughout the pandemic, but I would feel regretful and dismissive if I didnt agree to see her while I had the chance. I should've listened my gut and stayed safely at work because this "friend" failed to mention she had tested positive (she knew already by the time of our lunch date, she has since admitted) and had figured since she had no symptoms there was no harm in being in public.

FF only a few days later and I was feeling a little unwell but had put it off as an effect of the winter blast that had just hit where I live. I'd spent half a day out in the cold and snow for a photoshoot only the day before and thought it was probably due to that since I'm susceptible to weather influenced head colds and bronchitis. Fortunately, my job mandates a rigid COVID-19 screening twice a week due to our high profile clientele and as an assurance of health and safety for us all. Mine read back with a positive and with the way I had been feeling I was immediately sent home and the company closed its doors while the building was sterilized and our clients notified.

Thankfully I managed not to infect anyone I work with nor my son. Regrettably, I did infect my best friend since we're horrifically incapable of maintaining personal space and have weak shit immune systems. We both agree it is a wonder we made it this far into plague times without it catching us.

So I went and got looked over and sent on my way with my prescription of potent anti-virals and steroids. I was well prepared to abide the quarantine guidelines and had sent my son to my mother's home for the duration so that he was out of the danger zone. It was fine, I was kinda cool and keen on getting a few days to myself to rest up and all that jazz. But it wasn't meant to last and I found trouble in the form of being unable to remain conscious much at all and would pass out constantly. After a few times of this I gave my brother (he's a doctor and vaccinated) a ring and told him that my fatigue was no joke dude and needed him to come give me a better once over than the one I'd gotten before bc I was sure I was not meant to feel this badly. He found me unconscious in the shower that night, my head battered from crashing to the basin.

After ensuring I wasn't concussed and jokes on what a hard head I have to take such a beating and show no signs of registering it beyond bruising (a joke between us due to him having once accidentally put a golf club into my forehead and fracturing my skull but that's a different story) he told me to call him regularly so that he can review how I feel and the progression of my symptoms and left. By the morning I had already had two more instances of sudden fatigue and collapsing in on myself. I had been posting on my main blog here about how I was doing and due to this I caught the concern of @peekbackstage and upon their suggestion to have my O2 levels tested it was revealed that I was having issues with my blood not circulating oxygen as it should and nearing hypoxia.

Here's the rub. I have a heart condition that is already very dangerous and bleak which limits my heart's capability of delivering blood through my body as it should. Cardiomyopathy or, as it seems better known, congestive heart failure. I've had surgery for it and it has been a while since it caused me any real issues as long as I stick to my routine of care and manage my health, but when COVID-19 infiltrated my body it immediately snagged upon this weak heart of mine and sank its fangs in.

Within a day of being admitted to the hospital I had a grand mal seizure due to the constant fluctuations of oxygen in my blood and the way my body was working double time to supplement for it. And only 2 days after that and when my nervous system had finally quieted down, I went into full cardiac arrest with a heart attack at my young age.

My next weeks were spent connected to machines doing more for me than my own body could. I developed pneumonia in my lungs, acute though it was it was still another complication that my wrecked body had to overcome as it made my already ragged breathing even worse. I was steadily shedding muscle tone and definition due to a lack of mobility and the fact that my body felt like a deadweight I could hardly take command of, and generally very weakened. My heart, the horrible thing, was inflamed and trying too hard by beating too fast, too hard.

FF some more and I was doing fairly well and treatments were showing some improvement. My heart was still being an ugly and gnarled beast in my chest and throwing weird spikes on the monitor that raised alarms. The pneumonia was retreating and I had no further seizures. It was the dawning light of my first signs that I was recovering!

It took a while more and so fucking many tests day in and day out for me get cleared for release. I tested negative for COVID-19 and was ashamed that I actually forgot that that was why I was even in the hospital to begin with, given all that happened. I have to undergo physical therapy and counseling; PT for heart happy exercises as well as to manage to my depleted muscles, counseling bc I was rocked mentally from all the almost dying and the depressive haze of being holed up in the hospital and surrounded by people who, like me, came in with COVID-19 but unlike me did not come out of it.

I'm home now. I had to have a pacemaker implanted and must stay vigilant for any showing that my heart is not performing as it should. I still have some severe inflammation and chest restriction in my airways as well as my blood vessels but nothing too daunting. I also have a full battalion of prescriptions, most for my heart, and a nebulizer to ease any breathing issues. The worst is honestly that I still am very weak and have severely limited reserves of energy.

My job is required to make me take 12 weeks of leave for rest and recuperation. This is very upsetting since I had been requested by name to be an assistant stylist at the Grammys this year which is truly a dream (especially with BTS in the mix 😩😩) and also bc I'm just a workaholic by nature and love my job. When I return I am expected to learn how to properly delegate tasks that do not directly require me to handle and slow down the pacing of my projects. My boss terminated a contract with a client that was nearing the scheduled end of our agreement and was also incredibly problematic to help lighten my workload. It's imperative that I reign in my stress levels or my heart will not last until the next surgery I'll need, so I'm gritting my teeth and letting my job be picked apart to reduce my responsibilities.

My post awaits my return but I will not be returning to full activity for a while after, which means no rifling through the racks for hours alongside the archivists in search of the perfect piece. I'll be welcome to meet with my clients and oversee the glam teams, will still be the command tower for final verdicts on which styles to use. But I will not be running around showrooms nor personally handling matters any competent trainee could be tasked with like I've always done. I will no longer be able to fly out anywhere for destination shoots or fashion shows.

If, after my next surgery, things are better and my heart stable to the point that they are hopeful of things will be reevaluated. While it is difficult beyond measure for me to relinquish the reigns of my career and be restricted in what I can do now, I am very thankful to be alive and upright when that wasn't a certainty just a little while ago. This is such a humbling experience to have survived when my stats kept dropping every day. I've been told to expect that I will never make a full 100% recovery and to expect to stall out around the 70%-90% range, with 70% being the most realistic.

My best friend (the one I gave the plague to) will be moving in with me so that I am never on my own if things go tits up and to assist in wrangling a toddler since I am currently without the energy to do so as my child is, sincerely, a crazy gremlin spawn with limitless battery life. Slowly, my life will regain some normalcy 💖

#racks asks #personal and long winded - read at own risk

[hes-writer]

Instagram

Based on: harry is on tour and y/n posts a picture with a co-worker on a night out and he gets jealous and frustrated cause he hasn't seen his girl in a while.... he does something stupid that goes viral and breaks her heart but the co-worker is just a really good friend of hers and is happily married or something.... idk if it's a good idea but you can make it very angsty cause i love it hahahah (ooh-so-laura)

Word Count: 1457 words

Warnings: fluff, angst

Being on tour meant that Harry was away from Y/N for most of the year and that completely takes a toll on a relationship. It wasn’t because their love for each other lacked in any way, shape, or form. It was just that distance can strain even a strong relationship like theirs in subtle ways. So subtle that Harry didn’t even notice that he had gone a couple of days without video calling his lover, or that she wasn’t updating him every hour on her annoying work colleagues-- which was unusual for her, considering that she was practically attached to her cell for hours on end. 

So when Harry finally had the time off to catch up with the rest of himself, alongside the buzzing environment of traveling and touring-- his first instinct was to grasp his phone and dial Y/N’s number, not even considering the time difference of their home to his location for the next twenty-four hours. 

He waited and waited for what seemed like forever--he thought it was interchangeable considering he hadn’t talked to her in ages--he was surprised (not really) that it went to her voicemail. Harry knew that Y/N loved her sleep. He switched off the Clock app, finding out that it was only a quarter past nine and there was absolutely no way that she would be asleep at this hour. 

He tried twice, to no avail. His eyebrows furrowed in wonder and curiosity, lips pursing in a slight pout as a sudden wave of sadness overcame him and he realized that he’d probably have to wait for a bit more time until he got to talk to Y/N. 

---

As private as he is, Harry still kept up to date with the latest news through social media. He has been extra cautious as of late ever since he accidentally posted a picture of him wearing a cartoon shirt to his public Instagram story, mistaking taking it for the green, ‘close friends’ button. He made sure to keep his thumb a few centimeters more away from the sensitive screen as to not accidentally double-tap a picture he had no intentions of liking. He scrolled quickly, his eyes boring the screen in a swift glance, not really being interested in anything he was seeing. 

He soon moved on to his next task--to check everyone’s story. Loud sounds and pounding music got lagged through as he tapped on the right side of his screen, cutting off the video midway. He was still uninterested. 

Harry refreshed his feed, letting the loading logo swirl through circularly. Needless to say, he was stunned when he saw Y/N’s latest post, uploaded only a few minutes ago. 

There it was in large format, a picture of his girl and a--not going to lie-- a very decent looking man in a slick navy blue suit with a red tie. He figured he would’ve been more up-front of his obvious distaste of the man if he hadn’t worn such a color-coordinated suit. Snickering to himself, Harry thought he could probably show him up with a Gucci patterned suit of his that he’ll pull off no matter what. 

But nonetheless, the look was effortless and Harry was sure that he would’ve liked the man very much if it weren’t for Y/N appearing beside him. That alone caused a scowl to appear on his face and the next thing he knew; he was calling his girlfriends’ number with forceful taps of his calloused thumbs.

Y/N looked great, obviously. And maybe that’s why he was impatiently muttering to himself for her to pick up the phone. Harry didn’t know if he should complement the dress she wore or mention the fact that her lipstick was perfectly painted on her pouty lips, or how her hair was styled in a way that reminded him of date nights that ended in passionate lovemaking.

His chest ached suddenly, emotions overwhelming the fact that he missed his girl so much added with the boiling jealousy bubbling in his blood. The call went to voicemail and normally he would patiently wait a few minutes before calling again. However, Y/N’s profile rimmed a colorful hue, indicating that she just recently uploaded a story. 

He didn’t know what to make of her actions-- if she deliberately ignored him or she simply did not hear her ringtone alarming that he was calling. He called again. 

“Who’s that in your photo?” He growled, demanding for an answer instead of greeting his lover.

Y/N furrowed her brows at his sudden rough voice filling the speaker of her phone, “Hello to you, too”

“Who was that?” Harry repeated. He couldn’t help his fingers from fidgeting against a stray string of his knitted jumper. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“That was Kevin,” Y/N answered loudly, loud music blaring through her soft voice. “Did you like his suit? He said it was Gucci, but he wouldn’t let me see the tag,” She chuckled at the end, oblivious at the burning jealousy coursing through Harry.  

“Kevin, huh?” Harry mocked. “I’m sure it was Gucci and I guarantee that he wouldn’t mind taking it off to show you,”

He could hear you excusing yourself from the crowd. His phone speaker muted to a quieter atmosphere--he assumed you moved outside. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“God, Y/N. I haven’t seen you in so long and the first thing I see is with you and some other guy!”

“And whose fault is that?” She bit back, hoping to get some sense into his head before she hung up. 

Sighing in frustration, Harry changed to a decent attire, quickly grabbing the things he needed for a night out. Needless to say, the next morning was interesting for both of them. 

———

Headlines of Harry were plastered everywhere, mostly discussing his wild night out wherein pictures of women grinding against him were linked. He didn’t have an ounce of alcohol last night, but the hazy atmosphere of the club surely made his mind boggled. 

“Oh shit,” He muttered silently to himself, sitting up in his otherwise empty hotel bed. 

—-

Y/N understood that he was busy as of late, especially since he was in the middle of touring. Their video calls for the past couple weeks dwindled into a good morning or good night message and as much as she wanted to beg him for a few minutes to see his faced in a pixelated screen--she knew that he just didn’t have enough* time to do so. 

But apparently he had enough time to go out. She thought. She shook off the thought, knowing that jealousy and jumping into conclusion never ended in a quiet stupor. 

Instead, she examined the pictures closely as much as the blurry pixels let her. Seeing the emptiness in his eyes and the slouch of his shoulders caught her attention. His hands were to himself, seeming as though he did not care enough to push the women off of him but had no intentions to enjoy the movements against his body. And frankly, Y/N should be angry at him for doing something so stupid. But she also couldn’t ignore her instincts that all he needed was a reassurance that their love was still very much alive. 

She called him. 

“Y/N!” Harry agitatedly explains the events of last night, spewing out that he did not do anything that would taint his conscience or ruin the relationship they had. It put Y/N’s mind to ease knowing that her initial assumption was right—he just needed her to be there for him. 

“It’s okay, H. I understand,” She responded softly, playing at the end of *his shirt that she was wearing. 

“Y-you do?” His voice came out childlike and scared. She could imagine his lips pursing in a pout. 

“It’s alright, Har,” Y/N relaxed her tense muscles, “You wanna tell me what happened during our call?’ She giggled at his behaviour, to which he groaned in protest. 

“I’d rather not,” He shook his head, his dimple making a slight indent on his cheek.

“You were jealous weren’t you?” 

“Of course not. I was just wondering because if it was from Gucci, then Alessandro would’ve shown it to me by now,” He muttered quickly, lips pursing and pressing a lie to cover up his embarrassing actions. “And I kind of miss you,” He added quietly. 

“Right, of course,” Y/N let a few seconds pass before replying, “And I miss you too,”

“So, Kevin is …?” Harry let his thoughts trail off, brows pinching together as he waited for her answer.

She laughed at his prying tone, “Kevin is happily married and you are, too.”

----

thank u for the request !!

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[rejectofsociety]

Febuwhump: Day Four (I forgot to post it yesterday, leave me alone)

Prompt: Impalement Alternative - “Please Come Back”

Summary: Peter and Michelle’s relationship has been having issues for as long as their daughter could remember, and it’s been wearing her down.

Word Count: 3693

Warnings: None

Written for: @febuwhump 

✧༺✦✮✦༻∞　　∞༺✦✮✦༻✧

Maizie's memories of her parents mainly consisted of fighting and yelling. She wasn't doing any of the fighting or yelling, but her parents were always hard at it while the little girl was curled up in her bed with her sheets over her head as she drew pictures. She drew pictures of her motaher and father being happy together— happy in ways that she felt they never really could be.

She wasn't sure why they really were together because when she had preformed in a school play at age six and all the children greeted their parents backstage, the parents seemed happy to be together. They held hands and smiled and kissed each other on the cheek— Maizie didn't even know parents did that! She thought they were all bitter and disgusted with each other to the point that they despised being in the same room together. In fact, her father almost always slept on the living room couch while her mother slept in their bedroom. Some nights, Maizie would creep out of her room and crawl into bed with her mother or join her father on the couch— those nights were the nights where she slept best.

Sometimes she didn't know if her parents realized how much she hated their fighting. The way their harsh words lingered in her ears and their loud voices shook her to her core left her feeling distraught after every fight. There were nights where she was certain her parents had forgotten about her, being too caught up in their own squabbles. Some nights, one of her parents would storm out of the house and she would cry herself to sleep, not knowing if they'd ever come back. But they would. The next morning, they would come back and simply say they needed to go to her uncle, Ned's, house to cool off. She occasionally imagined herself storming off; just snatching her backpack off the ground, racing towards the door with a loud "fuck you!" (whatever that meant), then running off into the night. Her parents normally took the car, but Maizie couldn't drive yet.

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"Dad," Maizie called one night when she was nine and laying in her father's arms.

"Yes?" Peter muttered softly.

"Why do you and Mom hate each other?" She asked.

Peter's eyes widened a little and he looked down at his daughter, "May, we don't hate each other. We just..."

"Hate each other?"

"No, no. I just said-" he sighed and shook his head, struggling to find words that were gentle enough for her.

"Why are you and Mom still together if you hate each other?"

He tightened his grip on her slightly and stirred under the blanket, "I guess..." he suspired quietly, "Maizie, your mother and I were too young to have kids when you were born-"

"Then why did you have me?"

"Um- well," he cleared his throat awkwardly, "uh- we didn't plan on having you. It just kinda... happened. But I don't regret it, because I love you. A-and your mother loves you too, she really does. So we stay together so we can take care of you— neither of us can really do it alone."

"Oh..." his words still didn't make full sense to the girl: how did someone accidentally have a kid? How could someone be 'too young' to have a kid? How could someone not take care of a kid alone? Her friend's father could do it just fine.

"Does that make sense?" He asked, sensing her confusion.

"No," she admitted.

"I'll... try to find a better way to explain it," he sighed.

"How old were you and Mom when I was born?"

"Your mother was eighteen, I was seventeen. We had hardly been dating for a full year," he laughed softly upon remembering how young and dumb they had been.

"But then you got married, right? Aren't moms and dads supposed to be married?"

He shrugged, "not all the time. And no, we're not married."

"Really? Why not?"

"Never really got around to that part, I guess."

"Oh..."

"Do you have anymore questions?"

She hesitated with a list of questions in the back of her head, "...no."

"Good. Now go to sleep, it's been a long day."

Maizie nodded silently then nuzzled into her father's touch. She loved him but she also knew he wasn't great with explaining things. It was like he had too many thoughts and too many explanations— all of which were the same, just worded differently— and he couldn't organize them into a few sentences. Her mother, on the other hand, could spit out sharp and precise answers effortlessly.

"Mom, why do you hate Dad?" Maizie asked the next morning as her mother drove her to school.

"I don't," she replied quickly, "I love him."

"Then why do you fight all the time?"

"Because he's annoying and a bad listener," Michelle clenched her jaw at the thought of her boyfriend, "and the only way I can get him to listen is by yelling at him."

"Oh..."

Michelle felt a twinge of guilt twist her stomach into knots, making her sigh softly. Truthfully, she didn't like Peter all that much but her daughter shouldn't have to live a less than decent childhood just because her mother had made a handful of mistakes. Michelle loved her daughter and wouldn't trade her out for anything. Yes, her life had been made much more complex when the little girl entered the world, but that didn't make it worse. The only thing making her life worse was Peter. Why? Because she wanted to give her baby girl the life she deserved, one where she never shed a tear and felt loved every second of her day. What was preventing her from doing just that? Peter fucking Parker. And yet... she could never find the will to let him go. Maybe she was waiting for him to end things, just to make sure they really weren't in love. It was as if she were waiting for every single tiny drop of love for him to drip out of her heart, just out of fear of ending things too soon.

"You know... I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, but you are not one of them," Michelle said as she pulled up in front of the school, "and I just want you to be happy."

"Then stop fighting," Maizie simply stated, the words sounding too mature and formal as they left her young mouth.

Before Michelle could reply, the girl opened the car door, clutched her backpack, and hopped out the car. Michelle gnawed on her lip as she listened to the car door close once more.

"I love you," she murmured to the empty space.

Anxieties rolled around in her mind as she pulled away from the school. The drive back home was mentally excruciating. With nothing to fill the silence, every thought in her head was tied in some way to Peter and their daughter, but not in the usual loving way. The thoughts were painted with brushes of helplessness and worry while also centered around a realization she had always hoped she could never have to come to: her daughter wasn't happy with her life. Nine years old, and she already couldn't stand her parents— she couldn't stand Michelle.

Upon arriving home, Michelle instantly sat on the couch and texted Peter.

—

Michelle: can u come home?

Peter: no I'm at work

Michelle: tell them something came up. We need to talk

Peter: fine. Be there in 20

—

She tossed her phone off to the side then stood up and began pacing. Her mind raced as she began making a list of what her next steps would be. She needed to be thoughtful with the way she approached this. She could not have her daughter being unhappy in her home, not when it was a completely avoidable situation.

What if we can't fix this? She thought in horror. She stopped her pacing and stared ahead blankly, I guess... she eventually concluded, if we can't find a way to fix this, we'll break up. We'll finally break up and Maizie can visit him on weekends. It seemed like an obvious solution and something they should probably have done long ago and they really had no reason to be together. Maybe somewhere in their hearts they were still the same, stupid teenagers who fell head over heals in love.

"Something has to change between us," Michelle stated the moment Peter walked through the front door.

"Obviously," Peter retorted, making his way to the kitchen where Michelle waited, "so, where do we start?"

Michelle raised her eyebrows, "just like that? You're agreeing that quick?"

"Of course. You think I don't want this relationship to last? I love you and I love Maizie, I don't want to lose either of you," he spoke firmly

For the first time in a long time, a small, saddish smile spread across her lips, "I'm glad we can agree on something. It's been a while."

He nodded, "yeah, it has."

"But I was thinking that we can't do this ourselves. I mean, this is the longest we've talked to each other without fighting in a long time."

"It's kinda..." his voice trailed off as he thought about their situation, "...how did things get so bad between us?"

"You don't listen to me," she spat, "I told you I needed you, and you chose the city. I told you you needed to be a father and you chose to be Spiderman."

Guilt twisted in his stomach and he grimaced, "I..."

"You're completely oblivious," she hissed, "you didn't even realize what you were doing."

"Michelle, please calm down. I can quit being Spiderm-"

"I don't think you can," she deadpanned.

Peter raised his eyebrows at her, annoyance flaring in his chest, "if you think I'm a bad listener, you clearly haven't met yourself."

"Really? You're gonna pull that shit?"

"Yes, I am. Our relationship has gone to shit, and you can't keep trying to force all the blame on me, just because you wanna be right!" he snapped.

Michelle grit her teeth, but before she could open her mouth to spit a reply, Maizie's stressed and crestfallen gaze flashed through her mind. She stepped away from Peter and forced herself to draw in a deep breath. Peter watched her with sharp eyes, making her skin crawl with a strange amount of self consciousness.

"Please don't look at me," she quietly requested.

Peter immediately averted his gaze to his feet. Michelle gave a soft sigh of relief and leaned against a kitchen counter.

"That's one good thing about you," she observed.

"Hm?"

"You can keep me comfortable," she explained, watching a small smile twitch onto his lips, "you keep Maizie comfortable too."

"Thank you," he mumbled, still smiling softly, "you can still make me smile-- that's a good thing."

"Not as much as I used to though," she commented, somewhat regretfully.

"But you still do on occasion, and that counts for something."

They went quiet, avoiding each other's gazes as they thought things through. Peter rubbed the back of his neck anxiously, as if trying to relieve the tightness in his muscles. Michelle's eyes wandered to meet him and she sighed quietly.

"Your neck hurts?" She guessed.

"Yeah," he mumbled quietly.

"Come here," she took his hand in one of hers then lead him to their couch.

She nudged his blanket off to the side and gestured for him to sit down. He obeyed then she sat next to him, turning him sideways slightly then sitting next to him. She placed her hands on the base of his neck and tenderly pressed her fingers into his muscles, feeling the tension and knots in the fibers.

"What do we need to do?" Michelle asked as she massaged his neck gently.

"Um..." he thought for a moment, "remember when Betty came back from college and she and Ned were having relationship issues?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"They got a counselor and things started to get a lot better between them," he continued then groaned softly when he felt a knot relax.

"I don't..." she sighed and hesitated, her hands still expertly working through his tense muscles, "I don't know about a counselor."

"Why not?" He wondered patiently.

"I don't know, it's just..."

"Embarrassing?"

"A little."

"Would you rather be momentarily embarrassed and love me a little longer, or-"

"Fine, let's do it."

He smiled softly, "good. Now- shit," he groaned, "that one felt good."

She chuckled, "I can tell."

"Heh, yeah um... I'll text Ned and ask which counselor he and Betty went to— I remember they liked her."

She nodded then leaned forward and lightly kissed his neck. Her lips tickled his skin then made a gentle warmth bloom and spread across his body, enveloping him in a beautiful sensation he had missed.

"You haven't kissed me in a long time," he hummed.

"I know," she sighed, "... let's get an appointment as soon as we can. I miss loving you."

"I miss loving you too."

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How Maizie had left her school without anyone noticing was beyond him. Sure she was quiet at school and generally kept to herself, but wasn't it literally the school's job to keep the kids safe and inside? Maybe it wasn't, but that's not what Peter was thinking about at the moment. What he was thinking about was the call from her school reporting that she had been marked absent, followed by confusion and anxiety, calling Ned, calling May, calling Betty, they called everyone only to be filled with the dreadful realization that their little girl had run away. It was the most gut-wrenching feeling either of the parents had ever experienced.

You failed. You failed. You failed. How could you let this happen? His mind chanted endlessly as he swung through the city on swift webs. His eyes observed every detail of his surroundings, desperately searching for his daughter.

His spider-sense screamed suddenly and his eyes darted to the ground to spot Maizie crossing a road. Her head was down and expression scrunched up as she fought back sobs. Tears instantly rushed to Peter's eyes and he swept down to her and scooped her into his arms. She yelped slightly in surprise but didn't fight back, only watched in wonder as Spiderman swiftly carried her to a roof.

"K-kid," Peter shakily croaked out, holding the girl close to his chest as his body trembled.

"Spiderman?" she looked up at him, her voice was wobbly, "wh-what's wrong?"

Peter took a moment to hold his daughter and gratefully take in her precious existence. She was here in his arms— unharmed and alive— and he wasn't letting go. He was never letting her go.

"Y-your father told me he couldn't find you," he managed, "it scared me. I-it scared your parents worse."

"You know my dad?" she sniffed.

"Yeah, we work together."

"Oh. He never told me that," Maizie said as she wrapped her little arms around her second favorite superhero— War Machine was her first favorite, Captain America came third.

"Really?" He raised his eyebrows under the mask, "I'm almost offended."

She managed a tiny giggle then sniffed again. Peter looked down at her and brushed a few tears off her cheek gently. Maizie buried her face in his chest and he wrapped his arms around her a little tighter. I need you home, May, he thought desperately, how can I get you back?

"You smell like my dad," Maizie mumbled, her voice slightly muffled.

"I hope that's a good thing," Peter replied softly, his shaking muscles and palpitating heart gradually beginning to relax.

"It is. Smells like home," she drew in a deep breath to calm herself then raised her head to look up at Spiderman.

He nodded then hesitated, gently stroking her hair with one gloved hand, "why are you running away?"

Maizie's entire body began to quiver and her breathing grew shaky, "I-i'm having a r-really really b-bad day," she managed and Peter could see the tears beginning to roll down her cheeks, "a-and I don't wanna go home if my parents are just gonna fight. A-all they do is fight! I just wa-wanna play together but they j-just wanna yell."

Peter's heart broke a little more with every word that left her mouth. Her hands clung onto his body and she rested her cheek on his chest like a pillow.

"Your parents are going to try to stop fighting," he said softly, "they told me."

"They've said that before," she mumbled, "they're lying."

Peter let out a shuddering breath and considered every word as it left his mouth, "they're serious this time. They're getting help. Do you know what a counselor is?"

"Um... I-i think my school has one. She helps kids when they're sad or mad."

"That's good. Do kids seem to feel better after talking to her?"

She nodded, her tears slowing down once more, "y-yeah."

"Good, I'm glad," he sighed softly, "your parents are going to see a counselor. I can't speak for your mother, but your father really needs this. He loves you and your mother so, so much but he's really... he's really sad and he's mad too— just like the kids your school counselor helps."

"Why's he so sad?"

"Because... it's complicated. But he wasn't ready to be a father when you were born, and he knows he's made a lot of mistakes and wrong decisions, y'know? A-and he feels like a bad father and he takes it out on your mother. He knows it's not fair to either of you and he loves you so much, but sometimes he forgets what he's supposed to be doing," he rambled, "he forgets that he isn't just Michelle's boyfriend, but he's your father and he has to take care of both of you. Does- um... does any of that make sense?"

"Kind of, yeah," she nodded slowly, "but he's going to fix that, right?"

"Yes. He's going to fix that as soon as possible."

Maizie sighed in relief then furrowed her brow, "how do you know all this?"

Peter hesitated before replying, "um..."

What was the logical explanation for a superhero knowing the emotional conflict of a random civilian? Spiderman was friendly, but he wasn't exactly a therapist. Besides, Maizie was smart for her age— it wouldn't take her long to figure out the truth.

With a quiet sigh, he gripped his mask and pulled it away from his face. Maizie watched him, and instantly recognized her father. Her heart skipped a beat anxiously and she immediately began making a mental list of apologies.

"A-am I in trouble?" she asked frantically.

"No," Peter promised and she sank deeper into his touch, "just... Maizie, we need you. Please come back."

She paused, considering every word Spiderman— her father— had spoken to her. He sounded so sincere and desperate— she knew her family loved her, it was just a matter of them acting like it. Really, she never thought her parents would care enough to show her love and the fact that her father had just proven how much they both cared about her was more of a shock to her than the fact that he was leading a secret double life as a superhero.

"I... I wanna come back," she decided.

Peter let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and hugged the little girl tightly. Maizie buried her face in her father's neck and instantly felt herself comforted by his protective warmth. Panic suddenly rose in her chest as she realized what she had been about to give up— warm hugs, home cooked meals, a cozy bed, snuggling when she couldn't sleep, endless and unconditional love, and so much more that she couldn't even begin to list.

"I wanna go home!" She cried, "I wanna go home right now!"

"Sh, it's okay," he gently hushed her, stroking her back with one hand, "it's okay, May. Let's go home. I can carry you."

She nodded rapidly, "p-please."

"Yeah, lets go," he sighed softly.

After slipping his mask back on and holding Maizie in the most secure way possible, he stuck a web to a building and swung through the gentle breeze. Peter simply swung as calmly and in-control as possible— he just wanted to get home. He didn't use any of the playful or fancy tricks he used to use when he and Michelle were younger and he'd take pleasure in making her scream and laugh as they swung through the city. He hadn't done that with her in years. He missed her arms and legs wrapped tightly around him as she switched between terror and pure joy every few seconds.

Finally, the two arrived home. Despite being in his suit, Peter didn't mind walking through the front door seeing as no one was out and about to see him.

The moment Michelle spotted her daughter, she rushed to her and knelt in front of her. Maizie threw her arms around her mother's neck and hid her face in her curls. Maizie rambled her apologies and cried while Michelle held her closely.

"Maizie, calm down," Michelle hummed softly, "it's okay, I'm not mad. I'm just happy you're here."

Maizie sniffed and nodded, "o-okay... I love you."

"I love you too," she hesitantly let go then kissed her forehead, "can you go to your room and get cleaned up?"

She nodded again, hugged both her parents one more time, then made her way to her room.

Michelle stood up and looked over at Peter as he removed his mask. Their cheeks were stained with tears, their curly hair was a tousled mess, and their eyes were reddened with exhaustion.

"We're a mess," Peter observed.

Michelle smiled and walked to him, "yeah, we look like shit."

They exchanged soft chuckled and Peter brushed Michelle's hair out of her face. His fingers lingered on her cheek and she let out a quiet breath and placed her hand over his, closing her eyes lightly as she savored his touch.

"I love you, MJ," Peter promised.

"I love you too."

#febuwhump #febuwhump2021 #whump #i forgot to post this yesterday but whatever #peter parker #spiderman #michelle jones #mj #spideychelle #petermj #parents au #dad!peter parker #mom!michelle jones #parenthood #angst #spiderman angst #peter parker angst #angst with a happy ending #angst with a hopeful ending #emotional whump

[imaginethathaikyuu]

another dono request for @karlitabi-rrito! thank you for donating and letting me write this for you in return! it was super fun and i really hope you enjoy it :)

if you would like a personal scenario, headcanon or a match up, please visit this post for information on charity donation requests 

daichi sawamura x fem reader (who is asahi’s sister) (characters are aged up to be in college cuz thats the age range i prefer writing abt but it hardly matters) word count: 2845

-

When you had something to hide, it was always easy to keep it hidden. 

Well, until it wasn’t. 

You remembered the day your brother introduced you to his best friends like it was yesterday - which, let’s be clear, it was not. It was two years ago when you were surrounded by a group of boys, most of them looming over you in stature, while your brother guarded you like he was your watch dog. 

To be fair, Asahi Azumane was a great brother and an even better friend, and you were the only one who got to see both of those sides of him. When it came to you, his prized sister, he was observant and protective. He saw the look you gave to one of his greatest friends - the one with the number one on his chest and the kindest eyes you had ever seen. And that was when he had to set some guidelines. 

Tanaka and Nishinoya were already frothing at the mouth over you, so Asahi had every right to stand between you and the group of college boys and give all of them their own personal glare. 

“Off limits. She’s my sister, and she’s off limits. Respect that.” 

But maybe that was a bit too harsh. He saw their scared faces - especially on the first years - and he automatically felt bad. 

“...Please.” 

Your giggle could be heard by the entire team, and the only one you could see from behind Asahi - Number One - smiled at you. It was kind and knowing and pretty, and for some reason, you couldn’t look away from it.  

“Well,” the boy said, finally breaking your staring contest to look at Asahi instead. “Could you at least let us introduce ourselves? It would be rude not to.” 

“Oh. Yeah. Right.” He was feeling nervous, you could tell. He definitely wasn’t one for public speaking - and speaking to his entire volleyball team was classified as public to him. “I forgot to mention this, but the whole reason she’s here is to give us some management help. She’s basically going to be a team manager, I guess, since the upperclassmen are now finished. Uh… so, yeah, this is Y/N.” 

He stepped to the side and tried to stop feeling awkward, and you only laughed at how awkward he looked. And the team was far too nervous to greet you, which only made it worse. 

Well, most of the team. Just like you suspected, Number One was the first to step forward. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Y/N - I’m Sawamura Daichi, the team’s new Captain.” 

He said it with a genuine smile and he held his hand out to shake yours; when you took it, his other hand clasped over yours for the warmest handshake you’d ever had. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Captain,” you said with a light laugh - you didn’t miss when his brow raised. 

“Please - call me Daichi.” 

You figure the exchange should have been awkward - what, with your brother watching over you - but it wasn’t. Daichi was as friendly as his eyes looked and as warm as the handshake he had given you. It made it hard to feel awkward around him. 

You learned that more and more the months that followed. Daichi was warm in every sense of the word, and he was far too easy to get close to for there to be any preset boundaries between you. He made it easy to overlook them. He made it too simple to step over the line. 

Being a manager for the team he was the captain of meant the two of you got to spend a lot of time together, and it was normal for a captain and a team manager to be close. He often met with you after practice so you could communicate things from the coach or anything you noticed about how they were playing, and both of you were always early so you could plan out the needs of the day. But that time was spent with blushing cheeks and lingering touches, knowing looks and bated breath, blurring lines and growing feelings. 

It started when Daichi began asking you about your day before asking about practice. It started when you offered him your number “for emergencies.” It started when he walked you to your dorm, meaning for it to be a one time thing but making it a habit. 

Goodnight messages turned into good morning texts. Accidental touches turned purposeful. Secret glances turned into meaningful looks. 

All without your brother’s knowledge. 

A quiet evening in the gym would be the setting for the night that set the standard for what your future relationship with Daichi would look like. 

You had wandered to the middle of the room and sat down in the center, just for fun, and Daichi joined you. He was freshly showered and rightfully exhausted from practice, but he’d rather stay with you than turn in early. 

You sat across from each other, sitting close enough to send your brother into a panic attack. That thought was always in the back of your mind during moments like this. 

Daichi’s hand slid into yours, and you immediately felt warm. He was always so warm. 

“...Asahi would kill me if he saw this. If he knew…” 

You hung onto his every word. “If he knew what?” 

He shook his head and squeezed your hand, trying to find a way to speak through the lump in his throat. “About my feelings for you.” He avoided looking at you until he got the words out, and when his eyes found yours he couldn’t look away. “This… is probably wrong. I shouldn’t -” 

“He’s only my brother,” you argued. “He doesn’t own me. What he doesn’t know… won’t hurt him.” 

Daichi nodded, speechless. Nervous. 

You moved even closer to him. Your faces were inches apart. “This isn’t wrong,” you said. “My feelings for you… aren’t wrong.”

“So it wouldn’t be wrong to kiss you?” 

Instead of answering, you pressed your lips to his. 

The kiss was as special as most first kisses are, but when it ended, a condition was to be made. 

“He can’t find out,” Daichi said without thinking, and you agreed just the same. 

That was two years ago. Back then, two of you weren’t even in your fourth year, though you were just about to be. 

Now, you had graduated from university. Daichi and Asahi’s college volleyball careers were over. You shared an apartment with your brother. And your relationship with his best friend was still a secret to him. 

Even worse, the relationship was blossoming right under his nose. Every time Daichi came to visit Asahi, the two of you snuck kisses when he went to the other room. You had even snuck Daichi in from the fire escape more than once. 

And you weren’t just hiding from Asahi - you were keeping it from everyone. For your brother to not find out, it meant no one could find out. No friends. No family. No one.

It was hard to only be in a relationship when others weren’t looking. It didn’t do a good job at making the two of you feel valid in your endeavors, and while sneaking around was fun and exciting at night, the awkward guilt ridden mornings weren’t worth it. Having to pretend you don’t know everything about Daichi for the sake of keeping up the act wasn’t worth it. Having to watch him pretend to be interested in other girls when the guys were around and asking him about his love life wasn’t worth it. 

Keeping the love of your life a secret wasn’t worth it. 

But, like most bad things, you ignored it because it was easier that way. You’d rather have a secret relationship with Daichi than none at all; you’d rather your brother keep his best friend than find out he’d been betrayed by him for two years; you’d rather keep it behind closed doors for his sake, because you couldn’t handle hurting your own brother. 

Except, you were starting to slip up. Small mistakes, like making comments about Daichi you shouldn’t be making; letting Asahi see the photo of you and Daichi that was your phone’s wallpaper; accidentally calling him babe while your brother was in earshot. 

They were rookie mistakes. You knew better than to slip like that. And you and Daichi had multiple conversations about it - you were going to be more careful. 

Well, you would have been more careful. If you had the chance to. 

Your brother was away on a business trip for work and wouldn’t be home for the weekend - that gave you and Daichi the chance to play house for a few days. Being lovers of cliches, you were currently laying on his chest on the couch while a cheesy movie played in the background. It was peaceful and loving and warm, just like every moment spent with Daichi. He was safe and secure and yours; he was your happy place embodied. 

You were savoring it, because moments like these didn’t come often. 

Until the apartment door opened. 

You knew only one person would be walking into your apartment. Hell, you hoped it was someone trying to rob you and not the person you actually knew it was - surely Daichi could scare a thief off, but there was no way in hell he’d scare away your equally scary-when-mad brother. 

You sat up fast, shaking Daichi to wake him up, but it was too late. The moment the door opened it was too late. There was only a short hallway separating the living room from the foyer, and you had to cross that hallway to get to your bedroom, so hiding Daichi there was out of the question. 

There was nowhere to hide when your brother walked into the living room to see you straddling his best friend on the couch. You didn’t even have the chance to tell Daichi what happened, but Asahi’s booming voice cleared things up for him. 

“What… in the world… are the two of you doing?” 

He didn’t even sound mad - he was nothing but shocked. At first. 

“That better be someone who looks like Daichi,” he said to you, “because if it isn’t a look alike, I’m going to freak out.” 

“Asahi,” you tried, stumbling to your feet and approaching him like you’d approach an angry bear - which your brother was resembling at the moment. “Don’t get mad.” 

And he completely ignored you, walking around you to face Daichi, who had stood up with you. 

“Sawamura. What part of off limits don’t you get?!” 

Daichi said nothing, and you said nothing, and Asahi was looking back and forth between you two waiting for something. 

“I’m sorry,” you said, but it was no use. You knew what was coming. 

“You know, I expected it from Nishinoya or Tanaka - hell, maybe even Sugawara! But you? Daichi - you?” 

You saw Daichi break then. You watched any resolve he had crumble to nothing. He still had nothing to say. That wasn’t like him. 

Instead, he just let Asahi ramble. He took the brunt of it trying his best to look Asahi in the eye out of respect, but at some point his eyes were cast to the floor and he looked as if he couldn’t keep listening. 

“And you!” Asahi exclaimed, turning to give you a piece of his mind. “My best friend?! You went after my best friend? Out of all the guys in this city, you choose the one I don’t want you to date?!”

His words hit you like a slap to the face, and you were about to argue when Daichi spoke. 

“Don’t - it’s not her fault, don’t blame her. This was all my fault, I knew better but I still pursued her and I’m sorry, Asahi, I’m so sorry. I never meant for this to happen.”

“How long?” Asahi asked, and when he got no answer he asked again. “How long has this been going on?” 

Both of you stuttered out, “two years,” making Asahi groan loud. 

“Dammit. Goddammit.” 

He didn’t curse often, especially in front of you, so you were expecting something awful to come after that. 

“What?” you asked, pressing him to just get it over with. 

“Now I have to let you stay together!” 

Daichi pressed him this time. “...What?” 

“If this was just some stupid fling I could make you stop,” Asahi replied, now pacing back and forth and seeming to be talking to himself. “But no - two years?! What the hell?!” 

“We’re sorry -” 

“Save it,” he snapped, and though his tone was harsh the look he gave to you wasn’t. “Two years. You’ve been sneaking around for two whole years?” 

“...Yeah.”

“Yep.” 

“God. I should have known when I saw you guys together so much in university. I swear I saw this coming. Dammit.” 

The room fell to silence, with you watching Daichi and Daichi staring at the floor and Asahi pacing back and forth like he had gone mad. Neither you nor Daichi knew what to do, but Daichi had a feeling he’d be forced to leave if he didn’t go himself. 

“Okay, well… I - I apologize again, Asahi, but I understand if you don’t forgive me for this. I’ll see myself out -” 

“Don’t you dare - you’re not just going to leave my sister, are you?!” 

Daichi was completely taken aback and froze in place - Asahi was being far too brave and it was nothing short of abnormal and scary. 

“I - I just thought -”

“So now that I find out about this relationship you’ve got going on, you’re just going to leave her? Do you want me to be pissed off?!”

“I - no, I don’t -” 

And you had to step in and save your boyfriend. “Asahi.” 

“If you think I’m going to force you guys to break up, you’re wrong. Honestly, I’m offended you think that. Is that why you hid it from me?” 

No answer. 

“What do you guys think of me, anyway? I would never force you apart. Well, maybe I would, but… not after two years of a relationship.” 

Though his words were reassuring, he was still looking at Daichi with a hard stare, and Daichi was still on edge. 

“We can talk about this more tomorrow. I need to go to bed.” 

Obviously, Asahi just wanted to escape the situation. He’d probably just realized the weight of it all, and now a pit of anxiety was forming in his stomach. But you were glad to see him leave to his bedroom - he needed to calm down, and you needed to make sure your boyfriend was okay. 

Even after your brother left, Daichi didn’t speak. He didn’t even look at you. You had to approach him yourself. 

“Are you okay?” you whispered, hardly confident in your voice. 

Daichi shook his head. “I’m a terrible friend,” he replied. 

“Yeah, and I’m a terrible sister. We’re in the same boat, babe.” 

He didn’t reply and it worried you, and you were sure this was the end. Daichi obviously felt bad for betraying his friend’s trust - was he going to break up with you as a way to attempt to make it all better?

You stood there waiting, but he didn’t make the wait long. His hand soon slid into yours, and it was as nervously as the first time he held your hand. But it was just as warm, too. 

“We’re okay,” he stated - he sounded as if he’d just decided it. “Everything… is okay. Right?” 

“Seems like it,” you mumbled. “We’re still standing. He didn’t do what we thought he’d do…”

“I don’t even know why we thought that…” Daichi sighed. “We’ll have to make it up to him.” 

Making it up to Asahi consisted of breakfast the next morning, as well as a lengthy conversation explaining your reasoning for sneaking around. And Asahi listened. He understood. He even told you that he thought you were a cute couple. 

It made you realize you had been taking your brother for granted all this time; instead of seeing his caring, understanding nature, you only saw your own fear and anxiety. You’d spent so long skirting around him and trying to present something that wasn’t real to him that you hardly knew how to be honest with him. 

And that did hurt him. He did feel betrayed by Daichi and lied to by you - even so, it was okay. You were both family. You both love him, and you two loving each other was only a plus. And he would be okay as long as the two of you were, too. 

While a part of you would always miss the thrill of sneaking around, there was nothing better than proudly being with Daichi, and now that your relationship wasn’t so weighed down, you could finally grow together. 

But it wasn’t all great, because you had found a new weight on your shoulders no sooner than you had lost the previous one. 

Asahi had just finished his breakfast when he looked up at the two of you. “Well, since it’s been two years,” he said, “when’s the wedding?” 

Daichi looked more afraid than when Asahi caught the two of you together. 

“We’ll talk about it.” 

#dono req #sawamura daichi x reader #daichi x reader #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu x reader #scenario #fluff

[averyonelovesjack]

cost of friendship III ~ daniel seavey

requested: yes

hiii can we please please please have another part to parties and the cost of friendship? love love love your writing!

hey hon just requesting a third part to 'cost of friendship' with dani whenever you have the time, thanks love

Hey! I hope things are going okay! I was reading your imagines and I'm a big fan of your works! I was just wondering if you were going to post a part 3 to "cost of friendship"? Just curious :) I understand if you discontinued it/you're on a break.

summary: six months into the relationship and just in time for the holidays, daniel and y/n recognize the difficulty in spending the holidays away from each other and have to determine if it’s worth breaking the secret.

warning(s): cursing

disclaimer: i use christmas and thanksgiving as plot points in this story because it fit better with the way i wanted the story to go, but feel free to replace them with any other holidays you celebrate!!

word count: 2740

author’s note: accidentally posted this, unedited, last night with no word count and the author’s note that i wrote in december of last year when i originally made the draft and didn’t write a single word of this story:) so now that it actually makes sense to post this, here is part three to cost of friendship! thanks for all these requests even tho they were clearly from a long time ago since cost of friendship II came out TWO YEARS AGO in september. welp hope this was worth the wait lol enjoy:))

read these first: part one, part two

six months with daniel went by really quickly. the summer was honestly a lot of fun. i could spent hours at the boys’ house and nothing was suspicious about it. i grew a lot closer with them all because we spent so much time together, and it wasn’t weird for me to hang out there, and i could see daniel whenever i wanted. we really got to know each other during the summer months. i had known daniel for a while now, but getting to know him on a relationship level was really nice.

summer ended pretty quickly though and then fall came. i was back in school. i didn’t think it would be hard to see him since i was still in the ending months of school when we started dating. i think that going from so much time together over the summer to only seeing each other a few hours a week was a really hard adjustment.

we promised we’d never let our schedules be a problem, but managing a full time student’s schedule and a singer’s schedule is really difficult. i had classes monday through friday, and any time i wasn’t in class, i was doing homework. that left my only free time during the week to be late at night. so we hung out late at night, but by the time we saw each other we were usually too exhausted to really do anything other than lay around and watch a show or talk for a little bit. weekends were usually better for me, but daniel had a crazy schedule that usually had studio time incorporated on the weekend.

we still made effort to see each other all the time we could, but it wasn’t easy. i think that probably plays into my current nerves. it’s early november and the stress of the holiday season had already gotten to me.

as a kid, the holiday season was the absolute best. thanksgiving meant seeing all of my family, including my cousins who were really close in age to me. and then the stretch between thanksgiving and christmas was my absolute favorite. it was filled with christmas music, christmas decorations, buying gifts, giving gifts, getting gifts, and again, seeing family. and don’t even get me started on new years. as a kid, staying up late was the absolute best thing. the sparking cider and noise makers were all the rave.

as a much older college student now though, it was a lot less fun. the holiday season meant figuring out plans and traveling home to see my family and not knowing which part of my family was actually gonna be available. it meant buying actual meaningful or useful gifts and then figuring out how to get them home. there was still the music and the lights, but i had no time to meaninglessly drive around los angeles and see the lights or spend hours around a fireplace watching christmas movies. i didn’t even have a fireplace to begin with.

the holiday season was also much more confusing this year because i had daniel. i’ve never even had a boyfriend during the holiday season, let alone a secret boyfriend. most of the things we went out and did we could pass off as just things we’re doing as close friends, but the holidays were different. friends don’t ditch the holidays with their family just to hang out with their friends family. i don’t even know if daniel and i are at the level in our relationship, and then even if we were, i couldn’t do anything about it because keeping our relationship a secret meant not being able to do the explicitly for couples holiday stuff.

as much as i think daniel and i are ready for the family stage in our relationship, neither of us have really talked about it because there’s not really much room to do it anyways. i’ve met daniel’s siblings and parents before, but never as anything more than a friend because it was too risky to tell anyone. and daniel’s never had an excuse to come meet my family since they aren’t just down the road like his.

the secret relationship really damaged my normal holiday mood and it honestly stressed me out. i have to book my plane home soon and to do that meant that there really was no chance that i’d spend the holidays with daniel. even with us only being together half a year, daniel meant so much to me. in every other relationship i’d been in, it felt like i was waiting for the relationship to end or i at least knew that it wasn’t going to last. it was different with daniel though and that was really hard since we couldn’t even tell anyone about it.

tonight is a friday and i had finally finished my work for the week. i was invited to a party, but i didn’t really feel like going since i was pretty tired from the week and i wasn’t in a party mood. daniel texted me soon after and asked if i wanted to come over. i wasn’t really in a socialization mood, but since it was just daniel and i haven’t seen him much recently, i said yes. he even said he would pick me up which made it ten times easier to say yes because he knows i don’t like taking ubers alone and i don’t have access to a car.

daniel picked me up at about 7. i didn’t feel like getting ready so i just wore my grey sweatpants and wdw tee that daniel had gotten me for free. daniel never seemed to mind my lazy outfits and i knew as soon as we got back he would change out of his jeans too.

“hi love, how was your day?” daniel asks as soon as i get in the car. i felt a little emotionally exhausted, but so happy to see daniel. the car was like our safe space because no one was around to walk in on us and we didn’t have to hide our feelings and actions.

“exhausting, but better now that i’m seeing you.” i admit.

“at least it’s the weekend now.” daniel says. “and i went to the studio a little early today so that we won’t have to go in this weekend and i can spend more time with you.”

“really?” i ask, that news brightening my day a little. “i was just about to ask how studio was today?”

“it was good. we worked on a new christmas song today when we were finished. i don’t know if we’ll ever release it but it was a lot of fun. i’m sure you’d love it.”

“you know how i feel about christmas music.” i grin. maybe a little daniel written christmas music will brighten my spirit in these next coming weeks.

“speaking of, i feel like you haven’t played any christmas music. i swear i barely knew you this time last year as compared to now but i knew how much you loved christmas music. i feel like you played it as soon as halloween was over.” daniel mentions and as much as i wanted to hold it back and not say anything, i felt too tired to not.

“i haven’t really been in the christmas spirit.” i admit with a sigh that i knew daniel would read through.

“i know the holiday season is hard. it’s been on my mind a lot too and i was hoping it wasn’t adding to your stress, but i should’ve said something sooner because i knew it would.” daniel says, looking over and gently ok in a hand on mine.

“it’s okay.” i say. “i probably wouldn’t have even admitted it until we got to a night like tonight where i’m honestly too tired to pretend i’m not stressed.”

“i’m sorry, love. do you want to talk about it?” daniel asks.

“it’s okay, i don’t even know what to say because we can’t even do anything about it.” i answer. “and i don’t want to stress you out with all of my little annoyances and sad things.”

“i know that the last few months haven’t been easy.” daniel starts, deciding for us both that nothing i could say would be too much for us. “with our schedules and then keeping it a secret.”

“it’s just-” i don’t even know where to start because i know when i’ll do i’ll either inevitably cry out of stress or sound angry with him when i’m not, i’m just annoyed at our situation. “it really sucks that i can’t spend any of the holidays with you and i fucking hate that because i love the holiday season and the spirit and i’m avoiding it because i don’t want to feel sad about us not being together for the holidays. and i love you. i love you so much and i want you to meet my family because i know they’ll love you, but it would be way too obvious for you to fly home with me for the holidays and there’s really no hiding that so i know it makes no sense to even think about that because it just makes me sad.”

“i love you too, y/n.” daniel says, still processing everything. “i didn’t know you wanted me to meet your family yet. i would love to, but i didn’t want to bring it up until you were ready.”

“are you kidding?” i laugh a little bit, looking over at him as he parked the car in the driveway but neither of us moved. “daniel, of course i want you to meet my family. i know they’ll love you because you’re you. god, ever since i told my sisters i have a boyfriend they’ve been begging me to tell them who so that they could meet you. i don’t know, the holidays have always just been about being with family for my family, and i’m sure yours too. you’re such an important part of my life now and i wish i could share you with them. it’s whatever, though. we shouldn’t talk about it because i know that it’s not possible.”

“what about thanksgiving with my family and christmas with yours?” daniel says and my heart skips a beat. “and then we can figure out new years later. i know you have to go home for christmas because you’ll get kicked out of dorms, and as much as i would love for you to just stay with us, i’m sure you want to go home and see your family.”

“daniel, as lovely as that sounds, you know how suspicious it would be for me to stay here for thanksgiving and for you to fly home with me? i don’t think even we would be able to keep that a secret.”

“fuck the secret, then, y/n.” he blurts out. “y/n, i don’t see us ending ever, and definitely not anytime soon and it’s not like we’re gonna keep this a secret forever. fuck the secret. corbyn was right, okay, the boys are gonna be happy for us. it’s not like they haven’t picked up on us being close these last few months and keeping this secret isn’t worth us being apart for the next few months, okay? it’s hard enough to spend only a few hours together a week, i don’t want to be away from you for all of thanksgiving and christmas too.”

“fuck the secret.” i say, with a smile forming on my face. “are we really doing this?”

“i see no better time than now, y/n.” daniel leans over the console to kiss my lips softly. “wanna go tell the boys now?”

“let’s do it.” i unbuckle my seatbelt with a weight lifted off of my shoulders. daniel and i meet in front of the car, our hands interlocking as we walked into the house as a non-secret couple for the first time.

the boys were all sitting in the living room and a movie was playing with all of the lights out. they all look over as daniel closes the door and the two of us walk over to them.

“y/n? what are you doing here? daniel didn’t tell us he was bringing you over.” zach says. “of course he just wants to hog you again.”

“do you guys wanna pause the movie for a second? we have some important news.” daniel says and we separate hands as to not give it away just yet.

“fucking finally.” jonah says.

“what?” i ask, wondering what he meant.

“i mean, i don’t want to be the one to say it and ruin it for you two, but i mean, come on, we’ve been waiting months for you to admit to it. so get on with it.” jonah gestures for us to continue. guess we weren’t as great secret keepers as we thought.

“y/n and i have been dating for about six months and kept it a secret from everyone.” daniel says and then takes my hand in his and pulls me closer so that i’m in his arms.

“SIX.” zach yells. “i knew there were vibes between you two but you guys are good. six months??”

“not that good.” corbyn mumbles, which causes the other three to look at him.

“you bitch!” jack then exclaims. “you knew? and you didn’t give me my damn money??”

“it’s their fault, they told me not to say anything!” corbyn defends, pointing a finger at the two of us. “i was not supposed to find out. i wish i didn’t, this was a lot of stress i didn’t need.”

“i would like my twenty bucks now, thank you very much.” jack says and corbyn quickly throws a twenty dollar bill at him.

“this is so unfair.” the ninteen year old looks at the rest of us. “jack gets twenty bucks, corbyn gets stress relief, daniel gets a girlfriend and it’s y/n. what do i get? i want something!”

“zach, i didn’t get anything from this either.” jonah reminds.

“shut up. you have a girlfriend.” zach screeches in his jokingly angry voice. “god, i’m so lonely.”

“i have a couple sisters, if you want.” i laugh a little. “you’d have to come home for christmas with danny and i, though.”

“and you’re leaving us for christmas? gosh damnit y/n, why can’t you guys stay with me for christmas?” zach exclaims, which makes us all laugh a little bit. i wasn’t sure how everyone was going to react, but this was a pretty funny one from zach.

“i hate to break it to you bud, but we’re, uh, all going home for christmas. we do every year.” jack sets a hand on his bandmates shoulder. “i’m pretty sure y/n would rather spend christmas with her boyfriend and her family than you, no offense.”

“what the fuck, y/n. you don’t wanna spend christmas with me?”

i’m laughing too much at this interaction to answer before jack.

“to be clear though, zach, i would choose to spend christmas with you.”

“well we have y/n for thanksgiving. we’re gonna see my family, so we’ll still be in la and can hang out. have our own little friendsgiving.” daniel suggests.

“no no no, i’m too lonely for friendsgiving.” zach expresses, deciding to be unhappy with everything we say just for the comedy of it. “i’m too single. you’re all in relationships, i can’t be the only lonely one.”

“um, bro, i too am single.” jack looks at him funny.

“okay, well yeah, but you have a child.”

“yes, a child who lives in hawaii. i’ll be your friendsgiving date.” jack offers.

“really? you meant it?” zach faked being emotional and jonah looks at them, then back at us with a funny look.

“well, now that we’ve dealt with... that, i just want to say we’re all really happy for you two.” jonah starts. “not that this is surprising to any of us, because there has been way too much sexual tension since we’ve all been friends for this to not have happened, but i’m very happy you decided to tell us.”

“are you guys gonna go public? like tell management?” corbyn asks.

daniel then looks at me a little nervously and then back at the guys, “yeah that’s the next thing we have to figure out.”

lovely.

#daniel seavey #jack avery #jonah marais #corbyn besson #zach herron #daniel #seavey #dani #danny #why don't we #wdw #why dont we #wdw imagine #daniel seavey imagine #daniel seavey imagines #why dont we imagines #why don't we imagine #wdw imagines #why don't we imagines #why dont we imagine #christmas #thanksgiving #family #new year's #new year's eve #new year's day #ds imagine #ds #jack #avery

[gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights]

Rating: T

Summary: The beret smelled like Ladybug. It was only natural that Adrien would wear it to school.  He didn't know why Marinette would look so terrified to see it.(Post-Chat Blanc identity reveal)

Word Count: 5053

Notes:  Requested by my good pal @mozzys-studio​!  (I”m no longer taking requests but this is for the episode-divergent reveal fic asks)

XXX

“Did you know I have a fan club in Brazil, Plagg?”  Adrien asked as he examined the beret Ladybug had dropped off.

“Like I keep track of all the girls who want to gobble you up like a piece of cheese.”  Plagg snorted and lounged on the now-empty windowsill.  It was tempting to run to the window, try to follow his partner’s path home with his eyes.  But he knew better than to breach her trust like that.

“It’s not like that, Plagg.  I’m sure they’re just into fashion, like Marinette.”

Though… the hearts embroidered on it were a little much.  It was too bad the gift wasn’t actually from Ladybug, like he’d first guessed when he’d caught her in his room. 

“I wonder how they got it to her and not me,” he thought out loud.  “Some fans in Brazil wouldn’t know her identity, would they?  That’s on the whole other side of the world.”

“Of course they wouldn’t.  You’re her partner, you know she’s not that careless.”

Adrien didn’t like Plagg’s tone.  Ladybug wasn’t careless at all.  Of course no one knew her identity, or she’d have to give up her miraculous.

Though Master Fu would have to go through him before he ever let that happen.

“You’re right.”  Adrien sighed and flopped back on the bed, still running his fingers over the beret.  The fabric was silky soft, obviously high quality.  “I still wonder how they got this to her.  Even I don’t know how to contact Ladybug unless I’m transformed.”

Plagg shrugged.  “Maybe they sent it to the mayor or the Eiffel Tower or something.  Who cares?  It’s a dumb looking hat anyway.”

“It’s not dumb.”  He held it closer to his chest and caught a whiff of Ladybug’s scent.  Sugar and cinnamon mixed with some kind of flowery perfume.  He’d wear it for weeks just to cling to that scrap of her.

Of course, the smell of camembert would probably overpower it before too long.  Why hadn’t the same company that made “Adrien the Fragrance” bottled Ladybug’s heavenly aroma yet?

He was lost in daydreams of Ladybug modelling for a perfume ad for a few minutes before the itching mystery of the Brazillian fan club intruded again.  Maybe if he looked them up online, he could ask someone how they’d gotten ahold of her in the first place.

Or I could just ask her, the more rational part of his mind said.  But Adrien didn’t have any reason to get close to her, and Chat wouldn’t have any reason to know about her delivery.

Which begged the question… why did Ladybug agree to deliver the present in the first place?  She said there was a postal strike in Brazil, but unless she’d used the horse miraculous, the package had at least gotten to Paris.

“None of this makes any sense.”  His brow furrowed as he picked up the blank card that had come along with the package.  The Brazillians hadn’t even left him a note.

He squinted.  Or maybe they had—it looked like something had been erased from the bottom left corner.

“Hey Plagg, can you make this out?”  He asked.  

The kwami had been oddly quiet. Normally he liked to flip through a magazine or play foosball after a day of being squashed inside Adrien’s fencing gear.

“Huh?  What?  That little smudged spot?”  Plagg waved a paw dismissively. “Nah.  Probably just a stamp that ripped off, or something.  Who cares?  They should’ve sent you cheese instead, anyway.”

“It’s definitely not a stamp.  There’s eraser marks, see?”  Adrien sat up, crossing his legs on the bed.  As he held the paper up to the light, he could almost make out the left over indentations of the word that had been erased.

“I wouldn’t look at that too closely if I were you.  If she got rid of what she wrote, it’s for a good reason, right?”

Adrien’s head snapped up.  “Wait—she?”

Plagg froze, looking guiltier than the time Adrien had caught him sneaking an extra wheel of camembert after dinner.  

“Uh, did I say she?  I mean they!  The fan club, remember?  I bet it’s a lot of shes though.  Or guys maybe, it doesn’t matter to me.”

“No, you said she!”  Adrien scrambled on his knees, rumpling the carefully made comforter.  The beret reamined clutched in his right hand as he came face to face with where Plagg was laying.  “Plagg—did Ladybug actually get this for me?”

“No!  Of course not!  Why would she do that?”  Plagg laughed.  “Come on, kid, you’re just saying that because you wish she would give you a present.”

Adrien’s face fell.  Was he reading too much into it?  After all, Ladybug herself had said the beret was from Brazil.  Why would she lie to him?

“...Maybe you’re right.”  

But he still took another deep whiff from the beret.  She must have held onto it for a while at least.  Would it be so bad to imagine it was hers?  The stitching even looked like it was from a home sewing machine, not a factory.  A few little threads hung off from the underside, just imperfect enough to feel handmade.  And the pattern matched his favorite shirt, the one he was only allowed to wear to school or for stock photo shoots.  His fans wouldn’t have known that if they were focused on his father’s fashion, right?

Getting your hopes up again, he thought with another wistful sigh.

Oh well.  Regardless of the beret’s origin, Ladybug had come to see him.  That was more than enough to cheer him up from the disappointment of Father missing his fencing tournament.

He smiled up at the ceiling.  

“She really is simply the best.”

XXX

At school the next day, he guessed someone might comment on his beret.  Maybe Nino would appreciate having a hat buddy. Maybe Chloe would say that he’d finally learned how to accessorize.  Maybe Marinette would have something to compliment about the design.

What he did not expect was for all of the girls chatting on the steps to look at him like they’d seen a ghost.  And then for each and every single one of them to hone in on Marinette.

“Girl!  I thought you said you didn’t give it to him!” Alya whispered.

“W-well…” Marinette tapped her index fingers together.  What she said after that was too quiet for him to make out, but it had all of the girls looking at each other in confusion.  Rose squealed in excitement.  Alix groaned before shoving a stuffed unicorn at her.

“What’s going on?” He asked Marinette as he approached the group. 

She jumped higher than the time he’d accidentally startled her in the locker room

“Nothing!”  She waved her hands frantically.

Alya’s jaw dropped.  “Girl!  Tell me this isn’t a repeat of the scarf incident!”

Marinette’s panicked eyes flickered between the girls’ gazes, and Adrien wondered if he’d walked in on something secret.  But he was too curious to leave.  And besides, if Marinette was having any trouble, he hoped he could help.

“What scarf?”  His head tilted.  

“Also nothing,” she said with a glare at Alya before forcing a too-wide smile.  “I-I mean, it’s ages ago, it doesn’t matter now!”

“Oh… okay.”  

Concerned though he was, he didn’t want to push her boundaries.  He was about to say that he’d see her in class and that she could always talk to him if she wanted to, but before he could, Juleka spoke up.

“So you like the hat?”  Her bangs swung in front of her eye as she nodded towards his beret.

“Huh?  You know about it?”  Had she possibly seen Ladybug on her way to deliver it?  No, it had been wrapped at the time.

“Of course we do!” Alya grinned as Marinette made slicing motions in front of her throat.  

“Alya,” she hissed under her breath.

“Come on girl, you’re so close!  He obviously likes it!”  Alya whispered back.

Adrien’s brow furrowed.  He was mostly wearing the hat because it still smelled like Ladybug, but they didn’t need to know that.

Alix sighed wearily.  “She didn’t tell you, did she?”

“It was Marinette who made—” Rose began before she cut her off.

“Don’t you dare!” 

If her words were directed at Rose, why was Marinette looking at him with such wide eyed terror?  Did he do something wrong again without realizing, like he had at the wax museum?  Or was his new beret really that ugly?

“I’m sorry.”  He reached towards her vaguely before letting his arm fall back at his side.  If only he knew what he was doing wrong!  He would do anything to make Marinette feel comfortable again.

“We’re just trying to help,” Mylene said softly.

“W-well you’re not!”  She spun and shouted back.  The girls jumped—understandably; Adrien had never heard her snap like that at anyone but Lila, who wasn’t even here right now.  “Just—leave me alone!”

“What?  Marinette!”  Alya called after her, but she was already running away from the school, down the street.

Adrien would’ve preferred to get context from the girls first, but there wasn’t time.  His feet pounded against the pavement as he chased after his friend.

“This is a bad idea,” Plagg hissed from his shirt pocket.  “You just made things worse last time, remember?”

Like he could forget the time she almost kissed him while he was pretending to be a statue.  It still didn’t all make sense to him, but he supposed he deserved it after tricking her like that.

“I have to try.  She could be akumatized if we leave her now.”

Marinette had never been akumatized before, and he wanted to keep it that way.  He wasn’t sure he’d be much help to Ladybug if he was forced to fight her.

Don’t think about that.  She’s going to be fine, he told himself as he rounded a corner and found her pacing frantically at the end of an alley—

And a violet butterfly fluttering straight towards her.

“Marinette!”

He sprinted with all the strength his superpowerless legs could give him.  His transformation phrase caught in his throat, torn between protect Marinette and your identity must remain secret.  He doubted he could regret calling a Cataclysm to turn the insect to dust.  Because even if it meant revealing himself, this was Marinette and he couldn’t let Hawkmoth steal the light behind her blue eyes, watch her become a puppet to his demands and her own twisted emotions— 

But he didn’t decide quickly enough.  When he was three steps from her, the butterfly dissolved into one of her red hair ties.  A translucent purple mask flashed over her wet eyes.

“No,” he breathed.  

This couldn’t be happening.  The moment felt surreal, despite the number of his classmates who had already been akumatized.  And Marinette had always been different from his other friends, even if he couldn’t admit it until he was watching her like this, pulling at her hair, at her ears—

Wait, her ears?

“Adrien,” she gasped, her voice cracking under the pressure of resisting Hawkmoth.  

The bubbling darkness hadn’t washed over her yet.  She might still have a chance.  He wasn’t sure if anyone had ever fought off the supervillain’s influence before, but if anyone could, it was her.

“Marinette, look at me.”  He took her hands, guiding them away from where they clawed at her earlobes.  “It’s going to be okay. Whatever you’re afraid of, whatever Hawkmoth’s telling you he can fix—I promise you, we can do it together.  Without him.”

Her eyes glazed over.  He might not have much time.

But at least he had one advantage.

One hand squeezed both of hers while his other reached up to carefully unwind the tainted hair tie from around her pigtail.  It crumpled beneath his fingers, releasing half of her hair to cascade down her neck—and releasing the dark butterfly back into the air.  

“Oh no you don’t,” he growled and scooped it into his satchel, careful to tug the zipper completely shut.

“Adrien, no!  You’ll be—”

He smiled at her once his prize was caught fluttering helplessly alongside his notebooks. 

“—akumatized,” she finished, eyes wide.

A blush stained his face as he flung his satchel away.  She was right.  He’d been touching the bag.  If his own negative emotions had been strong enough, he might have become an akuma himself.  He couldn’t imagine how awful that would be—for Ladybug as much as himself.

“Sorry.  I didn’t mean to be careless.  I just saw you about to be akumatized, and I…”

I didn’t know if I could bring myself to fight you.  But he couldn’t tell her that.  He scratched the back of his neck.

“You saved me.”  She wiped away tears with the back of her hand.  “Oh my gosh, I was almost…”

She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.  Adrien wished those were his arms enveloping her instead, but didn’t know if that would make things worse.  She had asked to be left alone, and he still had no idea what had prompted her panic in the first place.

“Do you want to talk about it?”  He asked gently.  “I know you wouldn’t be this upset if it wasn’t important.”

She bit her lip, eyes flickering to his hat, then to the satchel that still bulged occasionally as the butterfly tried to escape.  Now more than ever he wished he knew how to call Ladybug. Maybe he should’ve done some research on his Brazillian fan club after all.

Though, now that he considered Marinette and the girls’ reactions this morning, as well as Plagg’s slip yesterday afternoon, he was less sure that a potentially-hypothetical fan club could help.

“I can’t.”  She shook her head, and she seemed to wilt.

“It wasn’t… something I did, was it?  Because you can talk to Alya, or anyone else, it doesn’t have to be me.  I just want you to be okay.”  He stepped closer, reaching out to wipe a stream of tears from the soft curve of her cheek.  

She stiffened at the contact.  Right. They weren’t close enough for that either, no matter how much he wanted to be.

(Or how much they might secretly be, if his too-hopeful theory was true.)

“N-no, Adrien, it’s not you at all.  I messed up.”  She squeezed her eyes shut.  “I messed up so, so bad, and now my best friend is going to pay the price for it.”

“Alya?”  He frowned.  

“No.”  She almost-laughed and looked up towards the rooftops.  “I really thought you’d figured it out.  Maybe I’m not too late after all.”

She seemed to be talking to herself more than him.  But by now, he was fairly confident he knew at least part of what she meant.

“You made this beret,” he realized, slipping it off his head and holding it close.  “Was that what you were worried about me finding out?”

The color drained from her face.  

“Would you believe I was commissioned by your fan club in Brazil?”

Ladybug was the only one who knew it was the Brazilian fans who sent it to him.  And she’d mentioned a postal strike there, which meant Marinette couldn’t have made it, unless— 

Visions of his partner and his friend blurred together in his memories.  Marinette dressed as Ladybug for Clara Nightingale’s music video.  Ladybug asking him to team up with Marinette against the Evillustrator.  She may have been able to fool him as Multimouse, but his gut feeling made too much sense to ignore again.

“You’re Ladybug,” he blurted before any better judgement (or the pain of Plagg smacking him under his shirt) could kick in.

“Shhhh!  No one can know!”  

She practically tackled him against the alley wall as her hands slammed over his mouth.  He almost dropped his hat, which didn’t seem as important now that her cinnamon-sugar scent was surrounding him anyway.  He just wished it was because she was hugging him, and not because she was terrified of him knowing her identity.  

The butterfly beat even more forcefully against the cage of his satchel, a reminder of just how important it was that her secret stay secret.  If Hawkmoth found out… he didn’t even want to imagine what could happen.

But she hadn’t tried to lie to him this time.  She was Ladybug—Marinette was Ladybug!  And she’d given him the beret—no, she’d made him the beret, which meant his wishful thinking was actually right, which meant—

The embroidered hearts on his beret suddenly didn’t seem too much anymore.

“Do you—do you like me?”

Even muffled by her hands against his mouth, his voice betrayed too much of his swelling hope.  She’d chosen Adrien to work with against Desperada.  Even if he’d been the wrong pick in the end, that counted for something, right?

“W-what? I—what makes you think I—?”  She stammered before finally hanging her head and releasing him.  “Yeah.  I wanted to give you that beret to finally confess to you, but then Nathalie wouldn’t let me in your house, and so I snuck in as Ladybug even though Tikki warned me not to, and then you found out and I got Chat Noir akumatized and I thought I fixed it when I erased my name but apparently I didn’t and now I have to give up my miraculous or else everyone will find out I’m Ladybug—”

“Maybe you shouldn’t shout I’m Ladybug,” a higher-pitched voice from her bag suggested, and she froze.

“Right. Right.”  She leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths.  

Adrien began rubbing soothing circles on her back—something he’d occasionally do as Chat when Ladybug was stressed.  She relaxed into his touch instead of stiffening this time, probably an instinctive reaction.

Because she was Ladybug.  Marinette was Ladybug. And she’d tried to confess her feelings to him.

He should probably tell her he liked her back, right?  Or would she only feel more stressed by that?  She didn’t seem happy that he’d found out— though that probably had something to do with Chat Noir getting akumatized.

“I can’t let Hawkmoth sense my emotions again,” she said while he was still trying to process everything. “I’m lucky that he didn’t seem to understand most of them.  He knew I was upset because I’d caused a friend to get akumatized, but since almost our whole class has been, that didn’t give him any clues to my identity.  Not that it matters, because I… I can’t be Ladybug anymore anyway.”

Her breath came in short hiccups as tears once again leaked down her face.  

“My la… Marinette,” he corrected himself as he gently turned her to face him.  “You’re an amazing Ladybug.  No one else could do what you do.  Believe me, I’ve—” I’ve tried, he stopped himself from saying.  He caught Tikki’s knowing grin from her spot in Marinette’s purse.  “Anyway.  I won’t let anyone take your miraculous, and I won’t tell anyone your identity, I swear.”

He’d guarded his own secret for this long; he was sure he could do the same for Marinette.  

“And I—and Chat Noir’s never been akumatized.”  Unless he’d forgotten, like during Oblivio or Dark Cupid… but he couldn’t completely forget the fact that he’d been akumatized, right?  He would have at least seen it on the Ladyblog.

“Not yet.” She wouldn’t meet his eyes. “It’s complicated.  Bunnyx—she’s the hero with the miraculous of time—took me to the future, only everything was wrong, and—it’s complicated,” she repeated with a sigh.

Everything about today was complicated.  All because he’d decided to wear the hat that smelled like her.

“If it’s really a big deal, can’t she fix it again?  Or couldn’t she just… I don’t know, have stopped you from giving me this beret in the first place?”  

He clutched the gift tighter.  He didn’t want the proof of her feelings ripped from him, but what else could he do?  She didn’t want him to know.  He’d always meant to respect her privacy.  If he’d been thinking straighter, maybe he would’ve played dumb.  Then she wouldn’t have to panic, and they could be together, and she could come to his photoshoots and he could model her designs and they could adopt a hamster— 

But if what she was saying was true, then the problem was that he knew, not anyone else.

“I guess…” she mumbled, frowning at the beret in his hand.  “But what if she can’t fix it?  If you know, and it gets out, and my partner gets akumatized… I could never forgive myself.  I may be in love with you, but he means the world to me.  I was selfish to still give you that hat when I knew what could happen.”

His heart could’ve stopped right then. She was in love with him! He wanted to spin her in his arms, but he settled for squeezing her shoulder and giving his most comforting smile.

“You didn’t know I’d find out.  And really, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”  He laughed.  “How could Chat Noir ever be akumatized after learning that you’re in love with him?”

She looked up, brows furrowed in confusion.  “But I already told you I’m not—”

Her mouth made a tiny o as recognition flashed across her face.

“Y-you’re him.  You’re Chat Noir.” 

He gave a quick wink.  “The one and only, my Lady.”

Her forehead thumped against his chest, nearly startling him into tripping backwards.

“It’s you.  This whole time I’ve been so worried and it was you!  And I love you so much and—and this is terrible!”  

The butterfly started fitfully fluttering again at her wail.  It was a good thing Hawkmoth could only evilize one at once, or Adrien would worry about him sending another one after her.  He kept his eyes peeled just in case.

“What’s terrible?”  He asked while resuming rubbing her back.

“You—when you were akumatized—you said it was…” she choked back another sob.  “It was our love that did that.  I didn’t think it was possible, since I wasn’t in love with Chat, but… it all makes sense now.  Of course I loved you when we got hit by Oblivio, and in the alternate timeline.  It was always you.”

If Marinette kept saying she was in love with him, he was probably going to combust on the spot.  Which made it very hard to think clearly and come up with a solution that didn’t leave them as star-crossed lovers until Hawkmoth was defeated.

“And it was always you.”  He wrapped his arms around her, letting her cry into his shirt while he ran his fingers through the loose half of her hair.  “If akumatized-me said our love was what ruined everything, then it must have been the butterfly talking.  I would never let Hawkmoth use my love against you, Marinette.  I swear, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you.”

She pulled back just enough for him to see a smile beginning to form on her face.

“You already did, didn’t you?” She nodded at his satchel. “Speaking of which, I should probably finish taking care of that.  Tikki, spots on!”

It was one thing to know she was Ladybug, but another entirely to feel the pink crackle of her transformation tickle his skin, to see her mask sweep the tears from beneath her eyes.  It unfortunately reset her pigtails, keeping her soft hair from his reach.  

“Adrien, you have to let go of me for a second, at least,” she giggled when he stared at her dumbly.

“Oh.  Right.”  He snapped his arms to his sides, like a kid that had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  

Plagg snickered and flew out from the pocket of his shirt.  “Finally.  You were really squishing me there, Pigtails.”

“Good to see you too, Plagg.”  She chuckled as she unzipped the bag and quickly purified the akuma.  “Bye bye, little butterfly.”

“And good riddance.”  His kwami snorted. “Sorry about my kitten, by the way.  I tried to throw him off your tail before, but he’s too stubborn.  I think he was looking for any excuse for you to be Ladybug.”

“Why wouldn’t I?  Marinette is amazing.”  He hugged the beret over his heart.  “Besides, I was right!”

Her grin lit up the whole alleyway.  “You’re amazing too, Adrien.  Even more amazing than I realized.”

“You—you really think so?”  He was about two seconds away from actually swooning into her arms.

“Of course I do.”  Her eyes softened. “You’re the best partner anyone could ask for, Kitty.  I—I don’t know how I could ever give you up, knowing that you’re not just one but two of the most important people in my life.”

“Me either, Bugaboo.”  

He put his beret back on so both his hands were free to cup her face.  

“Spots off,” she whispered, and his thumbs brushed her cheeks without resistance.  She cupped one hand over his, tracing the circle of his ring in a soothing pattern.  

He could’ve stood there forever, just staring into her eyes, but he knew the conversation about their future couldn’t be put off for long.

“I don’t think Bunnyx is coming to stop us,” she said softly.

“Do you think…” He swallowed.  “Do you think that means we’re going to be okay?”

Her eyes flickered to where Tikki hovered, looking torn.

“I don’t know,” the kwami said.  “I do want you both to be careful, but Adrien is right.  You can’t stop being Ladybug, and he can’t stop being Chat Noir.  Your fight against Feast proved that.”

“And what about us being together?”  Adrien asked a little too eagerly.  Knowing that she loved him back was a dream come true, but it would easily turn to a nightmare if she expected him to act like nothing had changed.  Not that he ever hid his feelings for her, but he’d respected that she didn’t return them.

Except she did.  He was the boy she’d been in love with!

“Didn’t you hear her?  She said you said that your love destroyed the world!”  Plagg exclaimed.

“He wasn’t exactly himself!”  Tikki countered. “It’s impossible to tell what really happened in the future without Bunnyx coming back.  Which is why we need to be careful, but it’s not fair to ask them to just give up their feelings.”

Adrien didn’t particularly care what the kwamis thought.  As far as he was concerned, this was Marinette’s decision.  She was the one who had seen the future, or at least a version of it.

She was the one he loved.  Who he would do anything to protect… but what if that meant letting her go?  Was he selfless enough to do that?

He wasn’t sure.  But he owed it to her to try to be.  

His hands slipped from her face.  

“I’m sorry.  I’m not being fair to you.  You were almost akumatized because of this, and here I am just worried about if you’ll go out with me.”   

He’d said he’d always be there for her, that he’d never let Hawkmoth use him, but how could he promise that when she’d already watched it happen?

“Adrien, no.”  She squeezed his hand.  “It was my fear of the future that almost got me akumatized.  If we have to live like that… always afraid of our feelings for each other—we’re just asking Hawkmoth to come for us.”

“Then… you don’t think it’s too dangerous?”  

Fragile hope danced on the edge of his voice.  Maybe it wasn’t smart.  But the future wasn’t set in stone—the fact that Bunnyx had visited at all proved that.

“I think right now, it’s more dangerous for us not to rely on each other.”  She smiled, and his stomach fluttered with the good kind of butterflies, the ones that wouldn’t try to twist his emotions into weapons.

“It’s too late to put the cat back in the bag anyway,” Plagg sighed.

“It would’ve happened eventually.”  Tikki nodded.  “I wish it weren’t so soon, but we can still make this work if you both are extra careful.”

“We will be,” Adrien promised.  “I want to show you off to the whole world, but we could keep our love a secret instead, if it’s safer that way.”

“You think you’d show me off?  You know you’d be the trophy boyfriend in this relationship, Kitty.”  She giggled and flicked his nose, and heat spread through him.

“I can be your boyfriend?”

“My secret boyfriend.”  Her cheeks were pink too.  “I mean—I wish we didn’t have to, but you’re right.  It’s probably safer this way, so Hawkmoth doesn’t find out.”

“Secret boyfriend still has boyfriend in it.”  He grinned.  “So what are my rights as your secret boyfriend?  What kind of secret things do we get to do?”

He wiggled his eyebrows, making Marinette cough and sputter.

“A-Adrien!”

“I’m thinking secret cuddling, secret movie night, secretly adopting a hamster—okay, that one might be a little harder to pull off—”

Her laughter cut him off.  “Oh my gosh, you’re such a dork.”

“What?  Your dad said you wanted a hamster.  Is that too soon?  Should I have waited until the second secret date to suggest that?”

Her laughter turned to cackling, and he found himself laughing along with her.  They were partners; they were best friends.  She wasn’t going to secret-dump him just because he got a little overexcited about secret-dating her.

“Hmm…”  She tapped a finger to her lips.  “I think it should at least wait until after our first secret kiss.”

His brain officially fizzled out at the word kiss combined with the fact that he was already staring at her lips.  He licked his own, suddenly wishing he’d worn chapstick.

“Um.  So.  That secret kiss—can that be now, or—”

Marinette answered his question by crashing her mouth into his, by tangling her hands in his hair, knocking his beret to the ground.  Which was perfectly okay.  He didn’t need a hat to remind him of her when she was here in his arms and in his lungs.  

No matter how many secrets he had to keep, it would be worth it to be safe and sound with his Lady.

#reveal #fic requests #miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #love square #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #fic tag #tali writes #really happy with this one!! #chat blanc

[beyondconfessor]

Principle Decisions [16/24]

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Zelda Spellman/Lilith

Summary: They were in the middle of an interrogation suddenly, and propriety dictated that Lilith should be the one to decline to comment, but Zelda could see that she was, for the first time since she’d known her, uncertain in how to do that. 

N.B.: Also posted on AO3. This is pure fantasy, please suspend your disbelief.

Zelda shuffled the newspaper, looking around it to peak at Sabrina. Her niece was sitting at the table, eating at the pancakes Hilda had made. 

She knew she should say something. Advise Sabrina that she was friends with her principal, and yet all Zelda had managed to say was that she was having a few people over for dinner. The family was welcome to be there, but it was for a small gathering of friends as she hadn’t hosted anything in some time.

It had involved her scrambling to invite Constance over, and then she had found herself inviting Shirley as well, because, well, she was technically Constance’s friend as well and Constance had asked and Zelda didn’t want to refuse her despite how much of a cow the woman was. And technically, Shirley had been nothing but polite to her since returning from her mother’s funeral.

Which meant that she had three guests and four family members, and would be sitting seven people––except Ambrose asked if he could bring Luke, which meant eight, and then Sabrina asked if she could bring Harvey, nine, and then Hilda, not wanting to feel left out, requested to bring Doctor Cee. Ten.

Ten people were to be sitting at an impromptu dinner and Zelda had to buy groceries, and wine and decide on what to cook––and then try to get her sister and Sabrina to help her, because god forbid she do all the cooking herself.

Ten people. It was certainly to be a dinner party at the very least, and all because she wanted people to see that her and Lilith were friends. Though she supposed she should refer to her as Mary during the party, to prevent anyone from getting confused.

Zelda had the family cleaning the house from top to bottom, ensuring cobwebs were removed, the floors were mopped, and rugs had had the dust and dirt beaten from them, giving them new life. 

She also made sure that the upstairs was just as clean, though it was unlikely anyone would be heading upstairs. She didn’t have to worry about Sabrina, who, like herself, tended to keep a tidy space. But Hilda and Ambrose both ended up having a lecture from her for the state of their rooms, both bowing their heads and grumbling under their breaths as they spent their Thursday and Friday evenings cleaning them. 

Heaven only knew why it took them so long, but so be it.

Saturday morning, she began prepping the food with Hilda. During that time, she received two text messages from Lilith (one of which was just a photo that Zelda quickly responded to), five from Constance fretting over what to bring, and one from Shirley (who was only asking for confirmation of the address). 

By four, the house carried the scent of a cooked roast, with entrees already set, leaving her enough time to shower and dress, preparing herself to look good. 

She fiddled between jewellery, a nervousness filling her before she finally managed to decide on a complimentary emerald set to the dress she wore. And then by the time she was downstairs, ensuring the white wine was in the fridge and the red wine was set out, to decant, the first guest had arrived.

Sabrina answered the door, tugging Harvey inside who looked wide-eyed at the adults. “I…” he said, holding out a bouquet. “Um, didn’t know what to bring.”

Zelda softened at the flowers, noting that they were not an inexpensive set. “Thank you, Harvey,” she said, taking the flowers in hand and making her way into the kitchen. It was an odd choice of gift to bring, but given that the boy couldn’t bring a bottle of wine, and likely felt embarrassed at the idea of bringing dessert (something Zelda would have taken offence to, anyway) she settled that the flowers were a polite choice.

In the kitchen, she unwrapped them, setting them in a vase with water, before taking them to the dining room table as the centrepiece. This way, the boy would likely feel welcomed into the home, and Sabrina would feel that she was making some effort to be respectful towards their relationship. 

As she was fixing one of the flowers, the doorbell rang again. Zelda turned around, moving to greet the new guest only to hear Sabrina’s blanched voice, “Ms. Wardwell?”

“Sabrina,” Lilith greeted, smiling tightly as she entered, holding a bottle of wine. “Hilda, lovely to see you.”

“Oh, Mary, Zelds didn’t tell us that you were her mystery friend.”

Lilith’s eyes turned to Zelda’s, a strange look filling them. “Didn’t she?” 

Zelda flushed. “Well you’re here now, and there’s no need for introductions.”

“When did you and Ms Wardwell become friends?”

Zelda drew in a breath. She’d prepared an answer and yet, faced with her niece, it felt flimsy at best.

“Your Aunt and I happened to keep running into each other, quite accidentally. I believe she thought I was a parent at the school until that nasty fight occurred.” 

Zelda’s shoulders relaxed with those woods. There was truth enough in them that she didn’t need to worry about Sabrina poking holes into it. 

“Oh,” was all Sabrina said. There was a furrow to her brow, as if she wasn’t entirely pleased with the situation, but in fairness, Zelda couldn’t blame her. It was one thing for your Aunt to prolifically know quite a fair amount of people in the town due to having taught them, it was another thing entirely for her to be good enough friends with your Principal that she invited her over for dinner.

“I brought a bottle of wine,” Lilith said, holding up the bottle in grip before she handed it over. Zelda took it, glancing to the label and noted that was it was a midrange bottle. Not so expensive to draw eyes, but not cheap by any means.

“Thank you, this will go lovely with dinner.”

Lilith’s lips twisted into a smirk, and then before she could even think of saying something, the door was ringing again. 

Within forty-five minutes, everyone had arrived, with Constance been the last person––profusely apologising, advising that Faustus had been home late and the au pair was off sick, so she’d been unable to leave any sooner.

“It’s not an issue,” Zelda assured, leading her to sit down. “It’s good to see you.”

“Honestly, these days, he’s home later and later, and I––“ Constance seemed to catch herself, realising the setting. “I’m tired of looking after the twins,” she finished. “One child is a full-time job, but two!” 

Zelda nodded, “A glass of wine, perhaps.”

“Please.”

The table was set, and Zelda noted that Lilith took her left-hand side, across from Constance, who sat next to Shirley. The table filled with people sitting side-by-side with their respected guests, leaving Sabrina to sit at the other end of the table, Ambrose to one side and Harvey to the other. 

Which meant that Hilda and Doctor Cee were sitting across from one another in the middle, but so be it. 

Food was served, the wine passed down the table, with Sabrina and Harvey permitted to have a single glass with dinner (though Harvey politely refused). 

Ever the hostess, Zelda led the conversation with Constance and Shirley, discussing their end of terms, before their plans for the winter break. 

“Oh, Faustus and I were planning to travel, but I think with the twins it’d just be too difficult, so we might stay for the winter.”

“I had plans with my mother,” Shirley said. “But, that’s all gone now, so I suppose I’ll just spend Christmas alone.”

Zelda felt a flare of annoyance rise in her at Shirley’s unsubtle attempt to shaft her mother’s death into the conversation, but relaxed when she felt Lilith’s hand slide covertly under the table and settle on her thigh. The fingers squeezed over her knee and with it, Zelda felt her emotions soften.

She turned, looking out the corner of her eye and noticed her inquisitive expression towards Shirley. “Do you have any siblings?” Lilith asked

“No, only child.”

Lilith nodded. “It must be hard.”

Shirley gave a wave of her hands and a tight smile. “You do the best you can,” she said. “It’s just my first Christmas without my mum, and pfft, Dad left long ago.”

“You’ll have the memories of all your Christmases before with your mother. It won’t make it easier, but it definitely…easies the ache to know that you had that time together.”

“Did you lose your mother, too?” Constance asked.

“Oh,” Lilith pulled away, and Zelda felt her hand drop away as she gave an awkward laugh. “I suppose so, but I…never knew my parents,” she said, finishing tightly with a soft shrug of her shoulders. “But in the end, you make your own family.”

A silence pulled then, and Zelda turned and looked at Lilith, asking her softly. “What about your foster parents, or adopted–?“

“I never had a steady home,” Lilith said, and then her eyes pulled away. “I was on my own at the age of sixteen, but that’s neither here nor there.”

“I didn’t mean to pry,” Constance said, “It’s just that you spoke of loss.”

“Have you lost someone recently?” Shirley asked. “A sister, perhaps or…brother?”

Lilith looked awkward then, and Zelda realised there was a deep, pained expression. Lilith didn’t want to discuss whatever pain-point that was, and yet no one else on the table seemed to notice. All of their attention was focused on her, eager to see what story would unfold. 

Zelda felt nauseous by it. They were in the middle of an interrogation suddenly, and propriety dictated that Lilith should be the one to decline to comment, but Zelda could see that she was, for the first time since she’d known her, uncertain in how to do that. 

“I think it can be said that we’ve all lost someone close to us,” Zelda spoke. “I know that losing Edward and Diana still brings a painful reminder when the holiday comes around. Mary’s right, the time we spent, and the memories we carry of them remind us of how precious the time we have together is. And the pain of knowing what we lost reminds us that we’re still capable of carrying on that love of them in our hearts.”

It was a sappy speech, but effective nonetheless as Hilda gave a misty-eyed look to her, tilting her glass in agreement, as soft murmurs broke over the table.

And then, the conversation drifted––Hilda began speaking of Edward and Diana fondly to the keen attention of Doctor Cee and Sabrina, as Constance and Shirley began discussing the dullness of wills and funeral affairs. 

To her side she noticed Lilith stiffen, her expression far away on something else. 

Leaning towards her, she asked loud enough that others would hear, “could you help me get dessert ready? I need to let it sit.”

And then they were pulling away, glasses in hand as they went into the kitchen as the conversation began to return to lighter topics behind them. 

Lilith held her glass of wine, and before she could say anything, Zelda filled the glass and then her own. 

In the kitchen, the dinner party seemed far away and Zelda was able to sip at her wine as she watched Lilith take a mouthful before setting it down on the counter. There was still a distant stare in the woman, and Zelda ached as she looked at her. 

She knew better than to ask. If and when Lilith was ready, she would reach out on her own terms.

The Lilith took a breath, standing up straight as she masked her expression to say, “I apologise. I didn’t mean–-“

“There’s no reason for you to apologise, you did nothing wrong. Everyone else forgot social decorum and decided to dive straight into your history like you were some bleeding heart poet.” Not that Zelda was surprised. Lilith was a new a face, with a mysterious background, of course, everyone would be curiously picking at whatever they could find. 

Turning away, she went into the fridge and pulled out the dinner, setting it down on the table. There wasn’t anything she needed to do with it, but if she was being honest, she didn’t want to drift back to the party and listen to Shirley whine about being motherless.

Zelda barely cried when her mother passed, and she certainly didn’t drag it into every conversation possible to tug at the heartstrings. She simply moved on, as was expected, and continued her research. 

Hilda had been a bit more sentimental and had cried in her room for days. But by then, they’d already lost their father, and the only reason their mother remained alive had been out of sheer spite, it seemed.

Lilith stood awkwardly in the kitchen, as if she didn’t know quite what to do with herself, and Zelda could sympathise. “I did warn you,” Zelda said, trying to lighten the mood. “My family are gossips.”

“Well, I suppose it’s to be expected.”

Zelda peaked out of the room, looking at the dining table before returning to smile at Lilith. “You know, it will probably take them a few moments to know we’re missing. If you wanted a distraction. I could show you around my home.”

“Show me around?”

“Mm. I’ve seen your office, it’s only fair that I show you mine.”

Lilith’s eyes lit-up, a half-smile tugging at her lips. It was an interest, and a chance of topic, at the very least. “And just what does the great Zelda Spellman’s office look like?”

Zelda smiled before nodding her head to exit out of the kitchen, towards the hallway. There, she led her to the large oak door. She turned back to glance at Lilith before twisting the handle, opening the door up to her office like it was a secret place, reserved only for the elite. 

In a sense it was. She didn’t permit guests into her office and her family certainly knew better than to step foot in it when she wasn’t present. 

Lilith entered the room behind her, her eyes drawing over its contents as she circled the office space. Her eyes wandered across the shelves, to the desk, touching over the variety of knick-knacks as Zelda closed and locked the door behind them. 

At the sound of the lock, Lilith turned. “Presumptuous.”

“I didn’t want any interruptions,” she said. “But if you are after something, we’ll need to be quick, before they notice our absence.”

Lilith smirked. “I’m sure there’ll be time yet. You’re giving me a tour of your house, after all.”

“Am I?”

Lilith picked up a framed picture of the family before setting it down, and then her eyes were flicking over the shelves, glancing over their titles. Without looking away, she said. “Take off your underwear.”

“Is that how we’re going to play it?” 

“I won’t ask twice.” Lilith glance at her then, and despite the severity of her expression, warning her to obey, Zelda could see the sparkle in her eyes, before the woman returned to perusing the shelves. 

They both needed a distraction, so be it.

Zelda smirked, and then slid her hands up her dress, sliding the lace down before she stepped out of them and picked them up in her hand. She intended to set them aside, except, as she walked to her desk, Lilith turned around and snatched them from her grip, smirking. 

“You’ll need to be quiet,” she said. “Can you be quiet for me?”

Zelda grinned. “I can be quiet.”

“I thought I’d ask because you were rather vocal in my office, and I doubt a mouse problem would be so easily believed,” Lilith said as she stepped forward until she was in Zelda’s space.

Zelda’s face tilted towards her. “I can be quiet,” she assured.

“Let’s see, otherwise I might have just the use for these,” she said, holding up the lace, and then leant forward and kissed her.

It was a needy kiss, demanding with biting and sucking and Zelda revelled in it, sliding her hands over Lilith’s shoulders and through her hair before she felt the woman’s hands settle on her hips, as she pressed Zelda backwards until her back hit the wall. 

Zelda gasped as Lilith pulled back, her face inches away before she tugged Zelda’s dress up, high on her hips and began purposefully sliding her fingers over her sex. 

At the very first stroke, Zelda’s head rolled back, eyes squeezing shut. 

“Uh-uh, eyes on me,” Lilith said, and tugged Zelda’s face towards her. “Look at me, Zelda.”

Zelda nodded, watching Lilith’s face shifted with pleasure as she continued to stroke, drawing it out in a slow tease. “There we go. Aren’t you just delicious,” she said. 

Zelda whimpered as she felt the woman slide inside of her and then Lilith was pressing against her, one hand stroking inside of her as the other splayed across her sternum, holding her firmly against the wall

“Be quiet. We wouldn’t want anyone to hear.”

“I am––“ and then Zelda stopped, feeling a hand wrap around her throat, pinning her there. Her eyes fluttered shut at the feeling. 

“Open up,” Lilith said. 

Zelda obeyed, opening her mouth only to watch as Lilith grinned and lifted the black lace in grip, before pressing them into her mouth.  Zelda’s mouth closed over the underwear, tasting her arousal as she watched as the pleased expression wash over Lilith’s face as she continued to fuck her.

The hand on her throat was firm, but not restrictive, in that when she swallowed her saliva, she could feel the muscles press against Lilith’s palm.

But as she whimpered, the hand grew tighter in warning, reminding her.

It was painfully erotic, to the point Zelda could feel her response pulsating between her legs.

Zelda had engaged in light choking in the past and hadn’t mind how it felt with her other lovers, but when Lilith was fucking her like that, holding her throat like that, Zelda struggled to recall that there was a world outside of this room, outside of sex, outside of Lilith. 

She wanted to go home with her, or take her upstairs and revel in a night of fucking. But she couldn’t. There were other people to think of, consequences for actions. 

But Lilith was holding her firm and Zelda felt like she might break if she let go. 

Her heart ached and she watched the woman’s face staring at hers as she bit back her whimpers and hushed moans, feeling the woman draw her close and closer to climax, until she was finally squeezing around the fingers, feeling her pulse thump against the woman’s hand.

And when the climax ceased and Zelda was drawing away, feeling it wash away from her as Lilith drew out the make-shift gag from her mouth, she watched a strange expression pass on Lilith’s face—not unlike it had all those weeks ago when she’d made her climax against the knot on the rope.

“Lilith,” she said, watching as the woman stepped back, her hands falling away. “Lilith, whatever it is you, you can speak to me.”

The woman’s eyes looked up at her.  “I like you a lot, Zelda,” she admitted. “It’s…been a while since I’ve had such a vested interest in another person.”

Zelda nodded, swallowing. “It’s been a while for me too.”

Lilith smiled at her, but there was a sadness to it, and for a horrible, sinking moment Zelda thought the woman might cry. But then Lilith was blinking and the emotion sunk away from her face, leaving only an echo of what had been there. “I’m sorry for––“

“You have nothing to apologise for,” Zelda assured. She reached out then with her empty hand and took Lilith’s hand in her own, squeezing her fingers. “We don’t have to go back out there.”

“It’s your dinner party,” Lilith reminded. “Whatever would people think if the hostess disappeared?”

“I don’t care what any of them think, I didn’t do this for them.” She felt her words die away, knowing she’d revealed too much of herself in those words. Letting go of Lilith’s hand, she looked away. “What I meant to say was that the whole point of this damned party was for us to show that we were friends.”

“And yet you hid that revelation from your family,” Lilith pointed out.

Zelda looked away. “I––didn’t know how to tell Sabrina. But I’d hardly say that I hid the fact, merely…delayed it.”

Lilith blinked, leaving silence to press between them before she asked, “Are you so worried about if she approves?”

Zelda squirmed uncomfortably at the words and looked away. She didn’t know how to put it into words, but the answer was yes, she did care. She cared about Sabrina’s thoughts. Deep in her heart, she knew why, but to admit it to herself, let alone Lilith, was too vulnerable of a position to put herself in.

“You’re not…ashamed of––“

“No,” Zelda assured. “I’m not ashamed. I…wanted more time of it just being about you and me.”

“It still is,” Lilith assured. “Why do you think that’s going to disappear if people know?” 

Because things were good, she wanted to say. And if her family got involved, they would ruin it unintentionally. They wouldn’t mean to, but they would. They always did. “Is it so wrong to want you all to myself?”

Lilith’s head tilted and a strange expression crossed her face, as if she was tasting the words, poking at the deeper meaning of them.

Zelda flushed and looked away. “I just mean––“

“I know what you mean,” Lilith said, as she stepped back. Her hands crossed underneath her chest as she seemed to pull away, looking as upset as she had been before, at the dinner table, which was the opposite of what Zelda wanted. 

“No, I don’t think you do––Lilith, I’m a private person. All my life, my family think of me as some emotionally repressed, ambitious…hussy,” she added as an afterthought, remembering Hilda’s words from the other week. “I want one thing untainted from them, because inevitable they’ll show you how…broken I am, and you won’t want anything to do with me.”

“Do you think you’re broken?”

“Certainly not,” she said. “But…” she didn’t know how to explain it to her. “They have a way of bringing out the worst in me.” She paused then, looking away. “When I was younger, I had a very active sex life, and that reputation has followed me my entire life. Even when I began at the University rumours followed me. Students still whisper about me sleeping with graduates to pass the time and that, on top of how difficult my family can be. How nosy they are and how selfish I am as a person…” she trailed off and drew in a breath, trying to centre herself and remember what she was trying to say. “This is good. Whatever this is, it works and I don’t feel ashamed of it. But I don’t want other people’s perceptions to take away from this.” 

“You’re worried people will find out and think you’re some kind of deviant?” Maybe, Zelda realised, exhaling. She didn’t feel shame, just a need to keep that side of herself separate. “I’m not going to air your dirty panties, Zelda,” Lilith teased. “But I do want to be your friend.”

“We are friends.”

“Are we?”

Zelda frowned. “What makes you think we’re not?”

Lilith shook her head and smiled. “You’re right. Of course we are.” She smiled and then drifted her eyes around the room. “I should make my way home soon,” she advised. “Before it gets too late.”

Zelda opened her mouth to argue that she could stay the night, if she so wished, but the words didn’t come out. “Stay for dessert at least?” she asked.

“For dessert,” Lilith agreed. 

And then Zelda found herself walking towards the door, unlocking it before she pointed out to where the downstairs water closet was.

Lilith drifted down towards that bathroom and Zelda made her way into the kitchen, where she washed her hands and caught her reflection in the mirror. Thankfully, there was no lipstick marks on her neck, just an ache over her body. A need to request Lilith to stay so she could take her to bed––and honestly, a part of her just wanted to get naked and fall asleep in the woman’s arm.

When they both returned to the dining room, Lilith’s expression had shifted easily to a masked expression, her smile bright, but Zelda could see where it didn’t quite meet her eyes as she spoke with table about art and philosophy, diving into the conversation easily. 

It left Zelda pondering the incident. Lilith had lost someone, and it was evident by the way she’d withdrawn that it was still recent, or deeply painful and somehow, whatever Zelda had said was wrong. 

A strange, hollow feeling settled in her chest and Zelda set it aside, not wanting to deal with it. It wasn’t a feeling she wanted to dwell on, and the selfishness of it made her tear her eyes away from the dinner party, feeling an ache settle in her chest.

She was better than that. 

The rest of dinner passed without issue. Dessert was served. Shirley remained a bitch, and slowly Lilith’s expression turned with genuine interest. 

And then Zelda was serving coffee as Harvey and Sabrina disappeared with Luke and Ambrose. And the remainder of the party moved to the parlour. There, she found herself sitting between Constance and Lilith, aware of Lilith’s body heat as her thigh pressed against her own. And then, very casually, she felt Lilith lean forward to the coffee table, her fingers drifting briefly against her thigh as the woman’s eyes caught hers. 

The other guests were caught in a rapturous discussion over books, but for the life of her, Zelda couldn’t follow what they were saying when she felt the brush of fingers against hers.

But as Zelda went to subtly enquire as to what the woman was implying, Lilith was thanking her for food and company and advised that she needed to leave to get through some administration. 

Oh. 

At that, Shirley and Constance agreed that they, too, needed to leave. Which prompted Doctor Cee to make a vague excuse and resulted in Zelda walking everyone out of the house, her eyes lingering on Lilith as she fought the urge to kiss her goodbye.

And then, they were gone and the house was empty. 

There was still the children upstairs, but if Zelda was being honest, she didn’t care. They’d sort themselves out.

“So you and Mary?” Hilda inclined.

“Pardon?” 

“You and Mary are friends?”

“Oh,” Zelda nodded. “New friends.”

Hilda gave a strange look, before shrugging to herself. “Well, she’s all alone here. I’m sure she needs a friend just as much as you.”

Zelda hummed to herself and drew away from her sister. Exhaustion filled her and there was still a twisting feeling in her stomach as she thought of Lilith’s expression as the woman had pulled away. Zelda was familiar enough with that deep, aching pain to know that if Lilith wanted to speak of it, she would. As it were, they weren’t dating each other and Lilith had no requirements to share what she was feeling.

It still didn’t stop her thoughts running wild.

She showered, thinking of it, changed into her pyjamas and then climbed into bed, still thinking of Lilith. She was just closing her eyes to sleep when she noticed her phone flash in the dark. 

Reaching to the bedside table, she pulled it off its charge and looked it over.

Thank you for tonight. I enjoyed the evening.

And then before Zelda could think of an adequate reply, another message was sent through.

That Shirley woman’s a bitch though. How did you two end up as friends?

Zelda felt a wave of indignant annoyance at the mention of being friends with Shirley Jackson. She wrote back a furious response, ensuring Lilith was aware that she was absolutely not friends with the woman, and only invited her because Constance had half-invited her to begin with. 

There was a back and forth banter for a few minutes and then the phone was ringing and Zelda answered, feeling an anxiety pull at her as she sat up, pressing against the pillows on the bed head. “Lilith?”

“I owe you an explanation about my behaviour tonight.”

Zelda’s chest tightened at the words. The last thing she wanted was for the woman to feel guilted into revealing her past. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“I do,” Lilith said. “Not that long ago, before Greendale, there was someone. We were planning for the rest of our lives when, very suddenly, he was in a car accident. Adam––“ she paused and Zelda heard the heaviness in her breath Lilith tried to find the words. “He was good. For a long while, I’d forgotten to ask myself what I wanted and he reminded me. And then he was gone, and I moved to Greendale to get away from the life we were building together. And it seemed like such a long, hard thing to do, so I went back to what used to bring me joy and began my Dominatrix service again…and then I saw you.”

Zelda wanted to say something, but she wasn’t sure what an appropriate response was.

“I lied to you about a few things when we were starting. I have a few regular clients that I’ve always had, but there’s no one like you, Zelda. There’s no other client that I see that comes close to what I…permitted with you. Before Adam, I had a much more extensive business across the city, but not here.”

Zelda’s brow pressed, and then an old question rose. “Did you slip the business card into the book?”

“I did. You don’t recall but I was in the bookshop as well, and I noticed you pursuing the erotica and the self-help section before you set the books aside. When your sister had pointed to the book, I slid the card in, hoping you’d take an interest.”

“How did you know I would call?”

“I didn’t. I had no idea if you would or wouldn’t. I knew nothing about you except what book took your curiosity. But, I will admit, you were quite beautiful and I hoped. And then you rang.”

Zelda tried to recall the day in the bookshop, but she remembered nothing of any other occupants, her anger solely focused on Hilda.

“I understand if you feel misled.”

“I don’t,” Zelda advised. “You didn’t force my hand in calling you. I did it myself, almost eagerly so.”

“And then you came back for a second session,” Lilith said with a laugh and then she heard the sound of what sounded like metal on glass, tinkering in the background. 

“I hadn’t cried since my brother’s passing,” Zelda admitted. “For a while, I thought I’d forgotten how. I certainly felt vexed and frustrated to the point that only alcohol or cigarettes seemed to ease it, but I hadn’t…really allowed myself to feel anything for some time until that first session.”

“Well, if you ever want to be spanked until you’re a sobbing mess, I can always provide that.”

“I…will take you up on that offer,” Zelda admitted. It wasn’t the same as the ache she felt before, but there was a weight off her chest, as if something had shifted between them in the quiet of the room. 

“You should come over,” Lilith asked. 

“I’m not driving thirty minutes in the dead of the night,” Zelda scoffed. “I’m already dressed for bed.”

“And what does Zelda Spellman wear to bed?”

“Pyjamas,” she responded dryly. “What else would I wear?”

“Nothing,” Lilith replied. “In fact, I think you should take off your ‘pyjamas’ right now.” The tone had shifted again and Zelda felt herself sit up straighter as a result. She thought to disagree with her and advise that she was going to go to sleep, but all at once, she was wide-awake.

“Fine,” she sighed, before pulling the dressing gown over her head and setting it at the end of the bed before sitting back, bringing the phone to her ear. “I’ve taken it off.”

“And your underwear?” 

“Who said I was wearing any?”

Lilith laughed, and then it slowly faded and there was a pause between them as Zelda waited for the next instruction. “Tell me what you would want me to do to you if I was there.”

That was a change, and Zelda felt it hum down her. She swallowed, settling back on the bed. “We would have to be quiet,” she said, before biting her lip, that probably wasn’t a very sexy thing to say. “You would sneak into my bedroom, and get into bed with me.”

“Mmhmm?” She heard an exhaled breath and then Zelda realised what Lilith was doing.

Invigorated by it, Zelda sat up straight and then parted her own legs, following in the same stead. “Lilith all I want is to fuck you. I want to undress you and feel how wet you are. I want to slide inside of you and feel your hips rock and listen as you gasp and moan. I want to taste you and slide my tongue inside of you.”

“Is that all?” Lilith purred, and there was decorum before Zelda heard a gasp through the phone. “And if you had me, is that all you would do?”

“I would fuck you,” Zelda assured. “I want to see your face when I make you climax, and feel it around my fingers, and then, when you think I’m done, I’m going to turn you over and fuck you again, harder until your hands are clutching at my sheets and you’re left gasping.”

“Zelda.” 

“I’m going to fuck you, even if I have to tie you down myself and find that cock you love so much and bury it deep inside of you.”

She could hear Lilith panting now, there was no disguise to what she was doing. Zelda stroked between her legs, naked on her bed as slid inside of her self, her other hand stroking at her clit as her shoulder pressed the phone to her ear.

“If you come for me, you will say my name,” Zelda commanded it, and she heard a gasp from Lilith, unmistakable as the woman edged closer and closer. “I hope you know that I’m fucking myself just think about it. Of binding you up with your hands behind your back and bending you over my bed until I’m satisfied.”

“Yes,” Lilith panted, and there was a hushed moan.

Zelda bit her lip, holding back her pleasure. She could feel how close she was too. It was building inside of her as she dug her heels into the bed and then it was all she could focus on as she listened to Lilith keen closer and closer.

Zelda’s breath hitched as she felt the orgasm tug low, pulling at her. “Lilith,” she said. “I want to hear you."

And then, obediently, Lilith cried out and it was Zelda’s name on her lips. An earnest noise, void of performance. It was enough to topple Zelda as she found herself squeezing around her fingers before the orgasm pulled through her.

Her back arched, head pressing against the pillows as her heels dug into the mattress, and then it was over and she was sliding her fingers out, dropping them wetly against herself as she listened to Lilith catch her breath through the receiver.

Lilith gave a short laugh. “If you ever want to switch it up, I would be most pleased,” she said. “But I won’t be anywhere near as obedient as you unless you beg me sweetly.”

“I can handle a brat,” Zelda said, and Lilith laughed.

“I’m sure you can.”

There was a silence that pulled between them as they settled and Zelda felt her eyes close, a tiredness washing over her. “I’m glad you came.”

“Oh, as am I,” Lilith teased.

Zelda scoffed, but the sound barely had an impact on how tired she felt. “I’m glad you came to dinner,” she corrected. “It would have been intolerable without you.”

“Zelda Spellman, are you getting sentimental on me?”

She hummed a response, pulling the blankets up over her body. It was getting cold, and as her body cooled down, she was all the more aware of how empty her bed was. “I enjoy your company, outside of sex.”

“As do I.”

“We should…” and then she wasn’t sure what she was going to say, because the world drifted away as she slipped into a dream. 

_________________

#zelda spellman #lilith #madam spellman #zelith #caos fanfic

[catsitta]

This Way Up: Post Mortem

500 Days ago I started a daily drabble project known as Handle with Care. I expected it to be about 100 chapters, but as time passed, the plot and characters evolved. It became a longer and more important story than I ever expected. It came to an end after 250 days of dedicated drabbles. You can find my post-mortem for that fic here.

By the time I finished HwC I knew there were questions left unanswered. Mysteries that couldn't be explained in a sequel. Or at least not a tradition sequel. This Way Up was the much requested pre-sequel to Handle with Care, which is to say one shouldn't read it before Handle with Care, but the events occured beforehand. These last 250 days allowed me to share Sans' childhood and explain some of the character's actions in HwC with some much needed context.

From being babybones to the day he meets Red, TWU needed to cover a lot of ground in 250 chapters. Unlike HwC there aren't distinct arcs, as the story isn't focused on romance and drama and friendship, but on growing up and losing one's way. This all ties into the name choice for the fic. All the installments of the series are, of course, moving puns, relating to the themes of the series as a whole. This Way Up/This Side Up is text one can find on the side of moving boxes, so one doesn't end up accidentally, well, breaking or disturbing the contents of what is in a box by putting it down upside down.

The reason I chose this for the title was twofold. The significance of disobeying the instruction (the contents breaking) as well as to play off the saying 'When you've hit rock bottom, the only way left to go is up.' Sans spent his early childhood doing everything 'right'. He was a child prodigy that became a prolific student and had every opportunity open for him. Sans could have been anything. But like many gifted children, a rigid and structured youth didn't exactly prepare him with any coping skills for when things went wrong. He starts drinking young and even tries to sneak cigarettes from his father (risky behaviors are common in intelligent youths), and tends to use denial to cope with stress, depression and anxiety. He's a workaholic running on empty, and the resets break him. Why work hard when it can all just be gone at the whims of a child?

Like Father, Like Son

Sans and Gaster have a lot in common. His emotional depth being that of a teaspoon? His denial of any problem with 'I'm fine'? Unhealthy habits and work-until-you-drop mentallity? His obsessiveness? Even their priorities being family over work in the end are parallel. Sans, in the depth of his mental break, obsesses over Papyrus, and keeping him close and safe. Gaster has to helplessly watch his own son fall apart and his love for him never falters as he wants much the same for Sans. He is baffled and betrayed by Sans spurning him, and while he tries to stay in Papyrus' life, Sans makes it very difficult. This whole, complicated situation leads to how we see their relationship in HwC. Where Gaster is often at wits end with Sans, questioning his choices (because he hasn't made very good ones over the past few years), and Sans, despite telling Gaster to stay away from Papyrus, defends him when Red assumes the worst.

Webdings and the Fell Brothers

One of the more mysterious figures in HwC is Webdings Fell. Red and Edge's dead by suicide father, who had a brilliant mind and a drinking problem so bad he'd been demoted from the labs before his death. He's Gaster's contemporary but his gruff, outright unpersonable nature keeps him from achieving the same status. However, Sans respects and has fond memories of the man, though he never insinuates he is ever anything more than coworkers with him, despite their shared experience with the LOADs. Sans spends his last years in the lab before his own mental break in denial about Web's drinking issue, too focused on other things.

A common question is why Sans never sought out Edge. Ever. The answer really is simple. He was in no state to do so. His own trauma and floundering health meant that he could barely take care of himself and Papyrus, and he spent the better part of those early years passively 'ignoring' the fact that there were two babybones born, and that he left one in Web's care. In a maladaptive attempt to preserve the first Papyrus, who most certainly did not have a brother, Sans 'forgot' about Edge. And even when Web died and he let himself remember, he didn't seek out the boy because he was Web's son. Not his. Web's. Web adopted and raised him. And like everyone else who knew of Web's passing, assumed the man had some plan for his children after his death (a family member, perhaps, since he was so private about his life), never imagining Red would assume a parental role.

Coming of Age and Loss of Identity

Who is Sans? Because Sans realizes in TWU that he doesn't really know. Much of TWU is based in the idea of a gifted child first trying to live up to his family's expectations, then that of society...and ultimately developing no sense of self or worth even when achieves by 18 more than some do in their lifetime. This lack of strong sense of self and self-esteem leaves him vulnerable to the depression and anxiety that come with the LOADs. He is helpless, no amount of brains will get him out of his situation. Everything he has ever accomplished can be taken away at any given notice. And during one of the LOADs he loses all HOPE. That is the kind of despair that takes years to recover from and often leaves scars.

What Next?

While I am taking a break from this universe and not writing its next installment in 100 word drabbles...More will come. And in the future this time. The focus will be on Edge and a certain skeleton commonly known as Blue. Of course, I will every so often fill in this 'missing' years in the fic 'Moving Day' which is full of oneshots and spin off ideas. So thank you all for following me on this journey. I'll see you tomorrow for the next one.

#Undertale #this way up #handle with care #post mortem #textpost